They say, ‘a dog is a man’s best friend’, but for Rashmika Mandanna, her dog is like a sibling. For the actor, every day belongs to her pet and “the only difference is that on International Dog Day, we cut a cake for my doggo, Aura”.

Spending time with her two-and-a-half-year-old canine is what Mandanna, 27, looks forward to: “Both of us are the happiest with each other. She calms me down, her love is unmatchable. She cries every time she sees me crying. If my tummy aches, she sleeps on it to comfort me. When she came into my life, it felt complete. She knows that I travel a lot and it’d bother her initially, but now she’s got used to it.”

The unconditional love pets have for humans, especially dogs, is an emotion. Mandanna relates to the saying ‘they are a part of your world but you are their whole world’. She says, “A dog is like a person who loves you. They discipline you and make you happy. Often, we are glued to each other and it’s funny to see us together. Dogs are known for chasing their tails. In our case, my doggo is my tail. When we are together, nothing else matters.”

The Pushpa: The Rise (2021) actor brought Aura home from a shelter during the second lockdown in 2021, as she thought she “really needed to find a little friend”. She says, “I found my little girl in the middle of nowhere and she was so shy. But something about her drew me to her. I remember, when she came home, she was so nervous. So I just let her be. In two hours, she started coming to me. That was the first time I held her.”

Recalling her first encounter with a pet as a child when her parents got a dog home, Mandanna says, “I always had a doggo at home. Mum used to say that every time I’d have milk, I’d share my feeding bottle with my dog. When he (one of her pets when she was a kid) died, I didn’t get out of my room for a month. Even as a kid, I would treat my doggos as siblings.”