Bhopal: For 15 years, Duggu was his master’s best friend and closest confidante. He never once failed to wait at the door, eager to receive Pradeep Jain, a resident of Madhya Pradesh’s Betul, and falling into his loving arms like a long-lost friend as he returned home from work. On Sunday, too, he waited in the hope that his owner would return from hospital, fit and fine as before.However, his master never made it home.Barely hours after 67-year-old Jain lost his eight-day battle with illness, his 15-year-old pet Pomeranian, too, died, succumbing to the enormity of the grief of a life without his master.Shortly after his owner’s bier was shouldered into the hearse car for the funeral journey, Duggu died a silent mourner, leaving Jain’s grieving family and neighbours in tears.Jain died during treatment at AIIMS Bhopal after battling illness for eight days.As his master’s last remains arrived at their Civil Lines home in Betul district for one last time on Sunday evening, and relatives gathered to pay their last respects, Duggu sat silently by his master’s body, never once flinching or moving away.Fearing he would be distressed watching the preparation for the funeral, the family members shifted the pet to another room. However, Duggu spent a restless night, whining continuously as if longing for a reunion with his master.As the funeral procession finally began, Duggu was let out. However, he quietly joined the mourners and shadowed the bier for a short distance before collapsing to his death. Desperately attempts to revive him failed, as the pet succumbed on the spot.What followed thereafter added to the enormity of the tragedy, making a sorrowful ambience still heavier with emotion.
Duggu
The family prepared a separate bier for Duggu, and, before long, both the master and his pet set off for the final journey from the home where they had shared many memories over 15 years.Jain was cremated at Ganj Mokshdham in accordance with Hindu rituals, while Duggu was buried within the cremation ground premises, in the presence of family members.In moving video clips that went viral, the pet was laid next to his master for one last moment together before they parted in death.“He was more than just a pet. He was a part of our family,” the deceased’s nephew, Yogesh Jain, told TOI, adding, “My uncle brought him home as a puppy and raised him thereafter. Every time he returned home from work, Duggu would run to greet him. Whenever he fell ill, Duggu stopped eating and also fell sick. Even after his death, he refused to leave his master’s side.”“We will hold a separate post-death ceremony for the pet, on the lines of his master’s,” he added.Family members recalled that Duggu spent nearly every waking moment with Jain over the 15 years that they were together. The love that brought them together remained steadfast and unbroken until the very end.
