Blue skies, little noise, much blossom, this is our neighborhood in these spring mornings of lockdown in Lahore.

Early morning, we leave our home to walk our black female Labrador dog, whose name is Bitya, an Urdu endearment that means daughter. In deserted verges and roads, we occupy centre stage, unafraid now of other humans who might find the dog worrying.

Instead of lonely and worried, the mood of these walks is uplifting and companionable, but less with other humans and more with the company of the varied and lovable personalities of our neighborhood dogs.

Outside, as 6.30 am turns to 7 am, one by one, we are joined with our neighborly dogs, off the lead and energetically assembled into a friendly pack.

Walking down a long lane, we first see our very own blond Brandy with her owner Shahid. She is Bitya’s own daughter, given to Shahid some seven years ago. From her we have learned that dogs never forget their parents, the place where they are born and continue the relationship with the first humans they meet in puppyhood with much effusion. Brandy greets us with total affection every single morning; first me, as her earliest human carer, source of food and cleanliness. She lies down to expose her belly for me to scratch even on drizzly days when mud clings to her fur. Then she greets her mother Bitya, who much to our daily surprise, beats her up, grabbing the skin on the back of her neck, growling lightly, toppling Brandy. Only then does the ambling continue in a group of two dogs. Finally, Brandy never fails to greet my husband as the first male human she bonded with. For us, Brandy is the continuation of her father, our blond male Labrador. All good temper, affection, her rolling amble and black-penciled eyelids remind us every morning of a dog we loved and lost.

Next, walking in the distance comes Bruno. He is usually pulling on his lead sideways and seen head-on, he seems to walk in a V formation with his owner Kamal. Carrying a truncheon (is it an American baseball bat?) that he never uses, Kamal, thinks Bruno is a goof prone to sudden paroxysms. I finally witnessed this firsthand a few days ago.

Chappati is a favored find by our dogs on the early morning verges. A fragment is held up high in the mouth of the proud finder and savored in private. A whole is sometimes shared with others on the walk. So Bruno got a large scrap of chappati the other day, causing Kamal to shout and wave his truncheon in the air. What, I wondered, could be the harm in this scrap?

Well, Bruno in his frenzy, tried to wolf down the fragment so fast, that his air passage was blocked. The dog was suddenly on his side, still and stiff, having passed into a paroxysm as oxygen supply to his body suspended. Within a second, he coughed up the chappati and resumed normalcy. “You see what an idiot he is – what would I tell Qudsia, my wife, if something happened to him?” exclaimed our agitated neighbor, Kamal.

In the meantime, our local thunderbolt was on the horizon. Shelby, the English pointer in her harness with her walker was just visible. Pointers are tall, slim dogs with small heads on long, very muscular necks, rather like high-fashion, Vogue models. They point their whole bodies into an arrow and using their powerful thigh muscles spring forward with bullet speed. “She’s like a racing sailboat, skating through waters in high wind – she can only change direction, not stop,” says my husband.

If the pointer is like a race boat, then the Labrador is like a river barge: squat, slow and solid. Imagine when a collision between these two happens as it does between Bitya and Shelby every morning. A scrum of energy, good humour, and play ensues.

Our final visitor is little Gigi who is designer Mahgul’s dog. She is a cross between a springer spaniel and a long-haired Dachshund, the colour of burnt sugar. Gigi is marked by great good humour. Her long, silky ears flap and her open mouth seems to grin as she baits and pounces on Bitya. Sheer joy erupts from Gigi and her littleness is of no importance as she flies through the air, teasing Bitya into giving chase.

Deeply social, joyful beings, our dogs dash through the morning verges. With our social distancing intact, we can only laugh and smile as the freshness of every meeting renews affection and energy.