The Most Expensive Meal I Never Expected (But Totally Worth It)

It didn’t come on a silver platter.
It didn’t arrive with a sommelier or a sprig of microgreens.
And yet—it cost me more than any Michelin-starred experience I could’ve booked.

Let me explain.

The most money I’ve ever spent on a “meal” wasn’t on me at all. It was on a panicked, rescued, too-smart-for-her-own-good black Belgian Malinois named Sauli, who refused to eat anything those first few days after she arrived.

I tried it all. The gourmet freeze-dried stuff. The vet-recommended bland boiled chicken. Freshly prepped meals more balanced than my own. Every time I set the bowl down, she looked at me like I’d personally offended her ancestors.

Eventually, I discovered what she would eat: lamb stew with turmeric and bone broth. Not the dog-version. The real, human-grade, slow-cooked-in-my-tiny-apartment-kitchen one. That stew probably cost me ₹3,000 all in, not counting emotional labor, herbs flown in, and the time I almost cried over a stove. She devoured it like a queen—and only after I sat beside her, hand-feeding every bite.

Was it worth it?
Absolutely.

Because that meal wasn’t about food. It was about trust. It was about saying: I see you. You’re safe now. You matter here.

And that, in many ways, is what our entire book series is about—especially the newest one, Sauli and the Great Escape. It’s not just about the chaos of a rescue dog escaping daycares, jumping yards, and inciting mayhem in Mumbai (though all of that happens, too). It’s about what it means to show up for someone who doesn’t trust easily. What it means to stay.

Each adventure in The Adventures of Sauli the Rescue Pup is a reminder that love is inconvenient. Messy. Costly—sometimes financially, always emotionally. But when you earn the love of a being who had every reason not to trust… well, that’s the richest meal you’ll ever know.

So yeah. That lamb stew cost me a lot.
But it gave me Sauli.

And I’d pay for it again a hundred times over.

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🐾 Read Sauli’s latest misadventures in Sauli and the Great Escape, now available wherever chaos meets love.
#AdoptDontShop #RescueTales #SauliSavesUsAll