Dave The Dog

Dave is my borrowed dog that entered my life in April 2019. Dave might not be mine, but he has been indispensable in helping me through the toughest battle of my life.

I grew up with dogs, cats and mice - Japanese Dancing Mice to be exact - and always wanted a dog of my own. I could not get one because of my working hours and there was no way I could have afforded a dog walker. But then my life changed. Big time.

I was diagnosed with womb cancer in March 2019. It was at stage three and required a radical hysterectomy, 6 courses of chemotherapy, 25 rounds of radiotherapy and 2 brachytherapies to beat it. I am delighted to say that there has been no evidence of disease since my treatments (and long may that continue!).

Following my diagnosis and the surgery, I found myself with plenty of time in my hands; I would be off work for a minimum of six months whilst undergoing chemo and radiotherapy. The dreams of getting a dog resurfaced. But, as my partner very wisely, and somewhat annoyingly, questioned: what would we do with the dog once I had to return to work? I shelved my dreams of becoming a dog owner once more.

Then I found out about Borrow My Doggy.

The website that is like a dating service for dog owners and those who want to look after them because they are not in the position to have their own. Without wasting any time, I signed up for it. There were so many dog owners within my area looking for help with their dogs, whether it was with walking them occasionally or dog-sitting them during weekends and holidays. I was spoiled for choice. There were little ones, medium ones, huge ones, young ones, old ones, puppies. The choice was endless. But since I was recovering from the surgery and couldn’t yet know how chemo and radiotherapy would affect me, I thought it best to steer away from huge or young and boisterous dogs. That was when I saw Dave’s profile: an eleven-year-old Jack Russell. Perfect.

I messaged the owner and we arranged a ‘date’ in a nearby park so I could meet Dave. It was love at first sight. With Dave, not the owner, of course. He is such a character, mischievous and loving - honestly, he loves everyone. And the way he hobbles when he runs is just adorable. But the best part was yet to come. As I chatted with Dave’s owner, it turned out we live in the same block. They are on the top floor and I’m on the second, which meant it could not have been easier for me to dog-sit him. Each weekday morning (unless I had my chemo or other hospital appointments), Dave’s owner would drop him at my flat and collect on his way back from work.

Those months I spent at home during my treatments would have been so different, and much more difficult, without Dave. He gave me a reason to get up and get out. Whenever he deemed that I had spent long enough on the sofa either writing or watching TV, he would demand my attention. And boy, does Dave know how to get attention (see video below).

He would make sure I dragged my backside off the sofa and outside for a walk at least twice a day. We would do a longer walk in the morning and a shorter one in the afternoon. A nap would always follow the morning walk, especially after my fatigue from the radiotherapy kicked in. We would both settle down on the sofa, Dave curled up by my feet.

I came to discover that Dave had three modes: walk, eat and sleep. He loves his walks, though being older and with minor problems with his hind legs, he gets tired quickly, which is why he loves a nap as much as me. His third mode is eating. We have nicknamed him Dustbin since he will eat anything, literally anything. I have seen him nudge the lid of our bin to fish out a slice of pizza with jalapenos and eating that in a couple of mouthfuls. He has picked up a disgusting discarded bone off the street that I could not get off him until we got home. I distracted him with some fresh chicken which made him drop the bone. I took the chance to wrap it in plastic bags and bin it. His owner told me that Dave had eaten a wasp which resulted in a trip to the vet.

I got into the habit of giving Dave a chewy snack of his own while I had my lunch. Otherwise, he would sit and stare at me or even try to steal food from my plate. I believe Dave would eat until he burst!

Dave was invaluable to me during my treatments and it was not only because he dragged me out for walks. It was because of his companionship and his intuition. Dave would know instinctively how I was feeling each day. On days when I was tired, he would not pester me for walks but would be happy to chill and satisfied with shorter walks. On days that I was feeling down he would not leave my side. I would work on my computer and he would rest his head on the laptop or on my leg. He could always sense what I needed.

Even after I returned to work part time, I continued to look after Dave on my days off, but now I have not seen him for eleven weeks except from the distance. Because of the pandemic, his family has been home and not needed help. Not that we could have done it anyway because of the social distancing rules. But Dave loves company, so he must be ecstatic to have his family around all the time and when I have seen him, he has looked so happy.

I miss Dave and I cannot wait to see the old boy again when life returns to more normal. And, I would recommend looking up Borrow my Doggy to anyone who loves dogs but for whatever reason cannot have one of their own.

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