Padma Lakshmi's Heartwarming Journey To Becoming A Dog Person

Statistics say that 84.9 million households in America, that is, 67% of the entire population, are home to at least one pet (via spots.com). Of that, at least 63.4 million homes have a dog in their family. Regardless of the statistics, having a pet at home is tough, especially when it comes to dogs. You have to be patient, understand what foods they can eat, clean up after them, pay for visits to the vet, train them, and learn an entirely new language, as they cannot speak. Bustle even compares having a dog to basically having a small kid at home at all times!

Thus, it's safe to say, being a proud dog parent may not be everyone's cup of tea and it certainly wasn't Padma Lakshmi's. Through a newsletter on Substack, Lakshmi frankly confessed that she could never have imagined having a dog at home, admitting that although she did like dogs she just never liked them around her in her own house. Owing it mostly to her Indian upbringing, which did not allow animals inside homes, she could not imagine having a dog drool, pee, and poop everywhere in the house, chewing and dredging precious furnishings in slimy dog saliva along the way.

However, she's proud to admit that she is now a happy dog parent — all thanks to her 11-year-old dog-loving daughter Krishna and one rescue chihuahua!

For Padma Laksmi, the tide turned sometime during the pandemic after Krishna, an only child with no one to play with, had spent several months indoors with Lakshmi, and was starting to feel morose. Wanting to lift her spirits, Lakshmi reluctantly made her way to an animal shelter and met Divina, a calm rescue chihuahua. In that moment, it was love at first sight for Lakshmi.

Lakshmi first decided she was only going to foster Divina, unsure of whether she and Krishna could take care of her. In a video shared to Instagram in November 2020, we can see Lakshmi bring a cozy-looking Divina, wrapped up in her arms, to a happily surprised and excited Krishna. "This is a trial dog ... she goes back to Animal Haven if you don't take care of her," Lakshmi says to Krishna, adding that it would be the 11-year-old's responsibility to walk Divina three times a day.

"You're funny padma. 1. Good Luck on 3 dog walks a day 2. Good luck on giving back that dog when #1 doesn't happen!! You are stuck with her forever," commented one follower. And they were right. Nearly a year later, it seems that Krishna has managed to walk the chihuahua three times daily, thereby making Divina a permanent member of the household. There's another heartwarming confession Lakshmi made in her letter, too: "I'm still not a dog person. I'm a Divina person." And it turns out, if a recent video posted on Instagram is any indication, she's now more obsessed with Divina than Krishna herself.