After starting and successfully sustaining Sonali’s Book Club quite a few years ago, Sonali Bendre has aced another passion project. The Happy Pawdcast, hosted by the actor-host, focuses on pet parenting and care. The show features conversations with guests, experts, and pet specialists to provide insights on topics like health, nutrition, training, and legal aspects of owning a pet. With Season 2 of The Happy Pawdcast, that Sonali co-hosts with her canine companion Icy, launched recently (and available to stream on YouTube, Spotify, Apple and JioSaavn), t2 chatted with Sonali.
What was the genesis of The Happy Pawdcast?
Season One of The Happy Pawdcast was just an experiment. When you go online, you see so many myths attached to pets and pet parenting. I spoke to my pet’s vet and said: “You should do a regular talk, like a podcast, and bust these myths.” He said: “No one knows me, you are the one who should be doing it. Considering you are not only a name but a pet parent yourself, people will pay attention.” I realised that it is not a bad idea. My son was leaving for university and I thought this would be a good thing for me to do in his absence. Since we already have a production office, they helped me put it together.
What was the route you wanted to take with something that is pretty much niche?
Being a pet parent has been a big part of my life. My dog, Icy, was a major contributor to my healing journey when I was coming out of my illness (Sonali beat cancer). Before Icy, I had another dog who passed away and I always felt that I didn’t give him the kind of experiences that I could have... I didn’t spend enough time with him and make memories. With Icy, I have tried to amend that and this podcast also has so much of her. She has such a personality, you know (laughs). I wanted to host The Happy Pawdcast with her because she is always anyway sitting next to me on the sofa. I thought it would be a lot of fun.
Like my book club (called Sonali’s Book Club), this is also a passion project. In a world where everything is about numbers, this podcast appeals to a niche community, but doing it makes me happy. I knew that I wanted to have fun while doing it.
It is not just me talking; there are experts who come in. I ask them questions as a pet parent and on behalf of other pet parents. This is as much a learning process for me as it is for those who watch this podcast. All the people who come on this show are such troopers. They have come in with their own pets and made this an even more happy space. We started this with a lot of trial and error but the response has been amazing, which made me feel that a second season had to be done.
What have been your big learnings from this podcast?
The primary thing is that there is no complete right or complete wrong. What we all need to do as pet parents is hear various opinions and see what works for us, our families and our pets. For that, you need to be able to know the various things that are available. You need to have it out there and then choose what you want to do.
So while you have somebody who will say: “Oh, kibble is good”, there will be someone else who will say: “I feed my pet only raw food.” Nobody is wrong, everybody has their way. The important thing is to understand what works for you and your pet, and that extends to things even beyond what you feed them.
Various opinions about parenting come up on the podcast, but the idea is to never be judgmental. It is a relationship of give and take of love and trust between you and your pet and that journey is personal. As long as love is being exchanged in a healthy and happy manner, we should let everyone be.
Through this podcast, my personal learnings as a pet parent have been immense. Icy has been with me for so many years and we communicate well, but it took a behaviourist who came on the podcast to make me realise what Icy actually meant when she displayed a certain kind of behaviour sometimes. Like humans, pets also have complex emotions and as parents, we have to understand them and help them navigate through it. If your dog has been potty-trained but is suddenly urinating in the house, you have to get to the root cause of it — whether it is physical or emotional — and correct that instead of behaving in a knee-jerk manner.
Also, what we all, as pet parents, need to realise is that you have a world outside your pet; but for your pet, you are their whole world.
India is largely not a pet-friendly country and we have seen that manifest in many ways. Have you seen that change, even if it’s to a minuscule degree, over the last few years?
Even though it was, of course, largely limited to passionate dog lovers, the kind of protests we had across the country when the court verdict (that called for eviction of street dogs) came out, wouldn’t have happened even a few years ago. I feel it is a significant step forward.
I have also seen a lot more people becoming pet friendly, especially after the pandemic. A big reason why this podcast also happened is because there is a growing pet owners community in India. For many of us, our pets sustained us during the lows of the pandemic and we got closer to them because we spent so much time at home. But now, a lot of people have got back to work and there is separation anxiety that pets feel. That is something that we address on this podcast. There are some who feel that it is not feasible for them to keep a pet anymore. If that is the case, please don’t let them out. There are ways to get them fostered through the right channels. On The Happy Pawdcast, we talk about the various organisations that do this kind of rehabilitation work.
I have seen people who perhaps have constraints in keeping a pet at home but that doesn’t stop them from going into a pet shelter and volunteering every week. Everyone can do that — you are not bound to the commitment of keeping a pet at home, but at the same time, you can always spend time with animals. We also emphasise on how you should foster a pet at home for a while and see if it works for the two of you. If you are not, it is fine... let the dog or cat go to someone who has the bandwidth to do so. It is an animal, not a toy.
What are the things that many pet parents get wrong?
The need to realise that dogs are not like human babies. Their needs are different and so how you train them should be different, the kind of signals you give them need to be different. I am a dog person, but through hosting this podcast, I have learnt so many things about cats. I never thought I would say this, but after doing Season 2, I am in love with cats! But my mother-in-law was like: “We already have a dog, no way are we getting a cat now!” (Laughs)
Our country sorely lacks pet-friendly spaces. Many public spaces claim to be pet friendly, but that comes with a lot of riders and the ground reality is very different. Is that something that you have also faced like many pet parents like me?
The size of the pet matters. I can’t take my Icy everywhere because she is a big dog. I can’t just land up with her everywhere because it may make some people uncomfortable. But I understand what you mean and we talk about that quite a bit on the podcast as well. In the first season, we researched on a few places where one could go on a holiday with your pet, but finally, they didn’t turn out to be what was expected. But in this season, we found a few more, and we could really see the improvement in terms of pet-friendliness as well as the kind of care that went into looking after pets. So, there is a change that is definitely coming about.
Honestly, sometimes we are all guilty of looking at only the negative side of things. If you go to rural India, one can see how nicely humans and animals co-exist. Community dogs in so many villages are looked after by everyone. Animals like cows, goats and so many more live in people’s houses there, and I am not just talking about farms.
In cities, we need a little more empathy and civic sense. The fact that we have such a huge population is also an impediment.
To end on a light note, if Icy could talk, what is that one question you would definitely ask her?
I would ask her why does she give my husband (Goldie Behl) more importance than me! (Laughs) She may be with me the whole day, but once he comes in, he is her world. I am the primary caregiver, but the spare human!