How Downing Street Dilyn went from wags to riches
Born on a puppy farm with a wonky jaw. Sold to a dodgy dealer. But then a real-life fairy godmother stepped in and began an incredible journey . . . all the way to No 10
BEHIND the famous black door of No 10, Downing Street’s latest arrival has been making himself at home this week, winning over the household staff with his shaggyhaired charm and puppy-dog enthusiasm. For while Boris Johnson has been chasing his tail in the Commons, Dilyn, the 15-week- old rescue puppy adopted by the PM and his girlfriend, Carrie Symonds, has been getting his paws under the table at one of the most famous addresses in the world.
It’s been a busy few days for the cheeky little mongrel, who travelled from Wales to Westminster on Monday to meet his new owners.
Freshly bathed for the occasion and wearing a smart red harness and blue lead, he happily posed for Press photographers and trotted around the No. 10 garden before being lovingly clasped to his new mistress’s bosom.
He’d barely had time to try out his new beds — the Mail understands that several have been installed for him around the four-bedroom flat above No 11, where the Prime Minister and Ms Symonds are living — before his next appearance at a Downing Street reception for NHS frontline workers on Wednesday. There, he was photographed in the arms of junior minister and former I’m A Celebrity star Nadine Dorries.
‘Dilyn was a huge hit!’ she enthused on Twitter after posting a photograph of herself with the pup.
Indeed, in what has been a turbulent week in British politics, Dilyn has proved a welcome distraction.
But it is only now that the Mail has pieced together the full, heart-warming story of the little Jack Russell cross’s extraordinary journey from his earliest days in the bleak Carmarthenshire puppy farm, where he was born with a misaligned jaw — to his new life, trotting along the corridors of power at Whitehall.
That he is alive at all is largely due to the efforts of a small South Wales animal charity, which specialises in rescuing sick and discarded farmed dogs, and saved Dilyn — and his brother, Jed — from almost certain death.
‘It’s a lovely story,’ says Eileen Jones, the 66-yearold dog-mad divorcee who runs Friends of Animals Wales from a rented bungalow in Ynysybwl in Rhondda Cynon Taf. She travelled by car with Dilyn to Downing Street on Monday and oversaw his handover to 31-year-old Miss Symonds.
She adds: ‘It’s wonderful to see this little dog find a loving home. Yes, his new owner is someone incredibly well known and he’s going to be living in a famous place, but that to me says that it doesn’t matter who you are or where you are, you can consider adopting a dog.’
CERTAINlY, this ‘wags to riches’ outcome for Dilyn is a far cry from the moment in July that Eileen first clapped eyes on him in the car park of an M4 service station in West Wales. The Mail can reveal the pup was handed over at a secret meeting alongside his brother Jed, who has the same jaw condition, by a farmer who wanted to get rid of them — with no questions asked.
‘Dancing with the devil’ is how Eileen describes the way she deals with puppy farmers who contact her, knowing she will take unwanted dogs off their hands.
‘Normally, they get my number
off someone who knows me and I meet them in lay-bys or car parks, anywhere they want to meet, and they hand the dog over,’ she says.
‘In the past they would have probably just killed them. So I have to be thankful that at least they’ve bothered to call me.’
Eileen has devoted much of her life to dogs since 2003, when her own beloved pet, a Yorkshire terrier called Sophie, disappeared. While searching for her, she became aware of the serious scale of puppy farming in West Wales and set up her charity in 2004. On average she saves 200 canine lives each year, along with countless cats, rabbits and guinea pigs. She works alongside 200 volunteers, many of whom act as foster carers, and is called out to around four puppy handovers each week.
‘I have to hide my emotions when I meet these people because my job is to save lives,’ she says. ‘I can’t criticise or they won’t call me again.’
The farmer who contacted mother-of-four Eileen about Dilyn and Jed was someone she had dealt with before. ‘They were part of a bought-in litter from another farm,’ she says. ‘Because of their wonky jaws, Dilyn and Jed weren’t saleable so he gave them to me.’
The car park handover was brief and virtually wordless.
‘I got them home as quickly as I could,’ says Eileen. ‘I cuddled them and treated them for fleas and worms straight away. Once they’d had some food they were absolutely fine.’
Friends of Animals Wales does not keep rescued dogs in kennels. They are brought initially to Eileen’s home, known as Wonky Towers because the dogs who live there with her permanently are disabled or have too many behaviour problems to be rehomed.
After being taken to the vet for health checks, pups are sent to foster carers who look after them in a family environment until a permanent home can be found.
The vet who X- rayed Dilyn revealed that his jaw was misaligned. Despite media reports that he underwent an operation to fix the problem before being taken to Downing Street, Eileen says this is not the case. ‘It’s not operable. It’s nothing that can be fixed. He’s wonky for life bless him.’
His Welsh name, which means ‘follow’, was chosen from a register held in the charity’s office. Dog lovers who have lost a precious pet can donate £5 to pass its name on to a new puppy taken in by Eileen and her team. Dilyn inherited his from a Cavalier King Charles
spaniel who died earlier this year. The carer Eileen chose to look after Dilyn and Jed also fosters children at her home near Merthyr Tydfil. She has asked to remain anonymous because of the work she does for social services. ‘Several of our carers also foster children,’ explains Eileen. ‘It helps the children know that what has happened to them also happens to animals.’
OVER the weeks that followed he pottered around his temporary home, inseparable from the bathroom nail brush that became his favourite toy and unaware that up in Westminster, discussions were already underway
to find a dog for the latest incumbent at No 10.
The origins of those talks stretch back more than a year to August 2018, when Michael Gove, then the Environment Secretary and himself a dog owner, hosted a reception at Downing Street at which he announced that the Government would ban the sale of puppies and kittens by pet shops and thirdparty commercial animal dealers.
The new law, which will come into effect in April 2020, requires animals to be reared in a safe environment with their mother and to be sold from their place of birth.
Eileen was there that day, among a group of determined animal lovers who tirelessly campaigned for ‘Lucy’s Law’, named after a King Charles spaniel who died in 2016 after being rescued from a Welsh puppy farm. The campaign was conceived by Tv vet Marc Abraham, who came up with the idea of using Lucy’s death as a powerful symbol for change.
In the weeks that followed, Downing Street staff are said to have tried to persuaded the then Prime Minister, Theresa May, to adopt a dog at No 10.
‘Apparently she wasn’t very keen on the idea,’ says Eileen, ‘but then Boris became Prime Minister and Marc heard he and Carrie wanted to adopt, so he contacted them and asked how they would feel about adopting a puppy farm dog. They were absolutely up for it.’
Dilyn and Jed were rescued by Eileen just days after Boris entered No 10, and as the search for a pup fit for a PM got underway, the nine-week- old brothers were in pole position after Marc Abraham put Downing Street officials in touch with Eileen and her charity.
‘They got in touch three weeks ago,’ says Eileen. ‘They wanted to see what dogs we had. Then the message we got back was that they’d fallen in love with Dilyn and wanted to adopt him.’
Eileen usually requires adopters to come to Wonky Towers to collect their dogs, but she decided to make an exception for the Prime Minister and his partner.
HAVING visited Downing Street last year, she was already confident that the environs of No 10 would make the perfect home for the pale brown and white pup. ‘I doubt you could find a more secure garden anywhere in the UK,’ she says. ‘There are armed guards!’
She drove up to Downing Street on Monday with Dilyn, who had with him his favourite bed and his precious nail brush, along with the pup’s foster mother and one of the charity’s adoption co-ordinators.
‘We were made very welcome,’ she says. ‘I think Dilyn’s going to be very happy there. He’s going to get to sleep wherever he wants, and there are plenty of staff around offering to do some pup-sitting.’
But what of Jed — Dilyn’s equally
cute brother? The Mail can reveal that he has also been adopted and is still living in Wales with his new owner, who is a civil servant.
Miss Symonds is said to be planning to invite Jed to a play date at Downing Street, so that the brothers can be reunited.
A happy ending then for two little pups who might so easily have been left to die. But behind this story is a more important one, that of Britain’s illegal puppy farms and the new law which, it is hoped, will squeeze them out of existence.
West Wales, a largely rural area, has the highest concentration of commercial dog breeders in the UK. Eileen points out that some puppy farms are licensed by local councils and are therefore legal. Lucy’s Law, she says, will stop them selling to unscrupulous dealers who buy litters and sell them via the internet.
The law is only due to come into effect in England, although in July the Welsh Assembly declared it will also introduce a ban on thirdparty sales of puppies.
But politics is no doubt the last thing on young Dilyn’s mind as he settles into his new Downing Street home. In what has been a tumultuous week at Westminster for his new master, the little pup has most likely been snoozing his way through all the drama — in one of his luxury new beds.
friendsofanimalswales.org.uk