Dog is known to be the most faithful animal and known to accompany his owner everywhere. Our trip to Makalu base camp gave us conflicting behavior of a dog in which the dog remained with us for whole trek although we were not his masters. The dog was called upon by different names – Kale, Bhote and Kanchi.  Here upon the dog is called as Kale based on the usage by majority of people.

It was the second day of our trekking and we had to climb an uphill trail for 8 hours. Our goal was to reach Khongma from Seduwa. It was when the unknown dog (Kale) joined us for a trek. As we did not know the owner of the dog and where it came from, we tried to forbid him from walking with us but it would not go away. His stubbornness to trek bestowed him to be our new friend. Kale seemed to be an expert in walking the trails which were challenging for us. It followed our every activity. He walked when we moved forward and stopped when he sat to catch our breath. It galloped every cramp of food that we gave it to him. The dog seemed to be trained mountain guide and did his work amazingly.

After walking the uphill trails for 8 hours, we reached Khongma where we had planned to spend the night. Our assumption that dog would go away totally became false, when we saw the dog waiting on the hotel door to be called inside. Since, the night was freezing, our humanity did not allow us to leave the dog outdoors hence we requested the hotel owners to let the dog sleep inside. After feeding him with dinner, we arranged a mat on the floors to help it avoid the cold that would come from the floors.

We had plan of going to the Teahouse at Septung and the big lake near the Teahouse. Our trekking guide Kale would walk with us that day also. The path was all covered with snow and it was white everywhere. After some quick breakfast, our trekking began. It would take us 5 hours to reached the lake. The heavy snow and the chilling wind did not stop Kale from travelling with us. What a fantastic dog guide we had found? When we were confused about the trails, the dog gave us a hint by moving forward and acted as an experience guide who was taking it guest on a journey. Due to unfavorable weather condition, the dog and we had to return to the Khongma.

At Seduwa the place from where Kale had accompanied us, we discovered the truth about him. It was the fourth time that the dog had followed the trekkers. The Kale was not Kale but Tommy who was owned by the hotel owner where we had spent the night. The hotel owner shared some amazing story about Tommy (Our Kale). But the most fascinating thing about the dog was that it was brave enough to cross two high camps and it never accompanied trekkers when they were walking down from Seduwa. The words of the hotel owner proved to be true when we did not see Kale while returning back next morning.