"Could we really scan a dog's brain to figure out what it was thinking? Would we find proof that dogs love us?"

In the prologue to his trailblazing study, How Dogs Love Us, a neuroscientist vocalised what most dog lovers, calling themselves 'parents', think about all the time. Except, Dr Gregory Berns was fretting about these existential questions minutes before sending Callie, his adopted dog, into the tunnel of an MRI machine-unsedated-for an active brain MRI test.

I bought this book a couple of years ago and read it at the speed of light. My husband was his casual, dismissive self. "You really don't know what you mean to Laddoo and Cheeku and need scientific proof for it?" I was, as usual, not listening to him. After a few hours, I put the book away after devouring it. I was irritable and dissatisfied. The book confirmed what I had known from the moment I laid my eyes on Laddoo, our 16-year-old beagle. Yet, there was a malaise-like uneasiness within me for a few days after finishing the book.

Yes, dogs love us the way no human being ever can. Yes, they even dream about us. Yes, they have separation anxiety. Yes, they think of themselves as humans and mimic our behaviours despite their physiological challenges. So, why was........

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