Lab & collab: Why dog lovers are getting together to ‘co-parent’
- Ipsita Pati
- TNNUpdated: Mar 15, 2026, 15:27 IST IST
They say plants are the new pets, and pets are the new kids. Pushing this further in Delhi-NCR’s ever-expanding neighbourhoods — home increasingly to couples and singles pursuing demanding careers — is a new form of parenting that’s taking shape.
Take Murphy, who splits his time between Sector 57 and Sector 90 in Gurgaon. The three-year-old Labrador has researcher Bhadra Nayak and journalist Ira Das as his co-parents. The friends, with very different professional demands and office schedules, had two things in common — deep affection for animals and a work life that deterred them from bringing a pet home. But when one agreed to be the backup for the other, Nayak and Ira needed no convincing to get a dog together.
Take Murphy, who splits his time between Sector 57 and Sector 90 in Gurgaon. The three-year-old Labrador has researcher Bhadra Nayak and journalist Ira Das as his co-parents. The friends, with very different professional demands and office schedules, had two things in common — deep affection for animals and a work life that deterred them from bringing a pet home. But when one agreed to be the backup for the other, Nayak and Ira needed no convincing to get a dog together.
