Have you consciously experienced sadness recently? I did, on Thursday.

I was waiting for my ride back home at one of those Indiranagar road intersections that bisect traffic-choked “main roads” and relatively quieter “inside roads”. I spotted a young and curious puppy, brown and floppy-eared, pottering around between the parked cars. He was young, perhaps five–six weeks old.

“Careful little guy!” was the first thought in my mind, as cars zipped past him every now and then.

Then, as I turned around, I spotted what was most definitely his mother. She was trying to cross the road from a different side, looking towards him with big, anxious eyes. But she was also scared herself, as the cars and bikes kept going by. She was unable to find a gap in the constant flow. Her tail was tucked down. She was afraid both for herself, and for her pup.

In that moment, I felt sadness like I hadn’t for a while. I wanted to help her cross the road, but she disappeared behind some cars.

The entire ride home, I couldn’t get her fearful and anxious eyes out of my head. I couldn’t stop feeling sad for her and her utter helplessness. I couldn’t stop thinking about how she must have been feeling, how overwhelming and hopeless the world—our world—must appear to her. About how slim the chances of survival would be for her puppy, no matter how curious and playful he was right now.

Gabru, our adopted family member, is a street rescue. Before we adopted him as a three-month-old puppy from CUPA’s Second Chance adoption centre, they’d found him on the streets. I do not know if his mother was still around when they took him. But I do know that he is by nature both trusting of his caretaker humans, and extremely wary of most others (mostly men). He is also quite aggressive towards other dogs, which I now recognise as fear-based aggression (also called “leash aggression”). Most people, including dog lovers and even dog parents, wrongly diagnose that as “alpha behaviour”.

Part of Gabru’s fearful and wary nature might come from his mother and how she felt while she was pregnant (PDF) and even after giving birth.