Canine comfort is best therapy
Fibromyalgia sufferer tells how gentle greyhounds have helped to improve her mental health during Covid crisis
BY DAWN CAMPBELL I RESCUED Zoe three years ago from the Greyhound Awareness League and last Christmas I fostered Bella from the Scottish Greyhound Sanctuary. I got Bella for some canine company for Zoe and to let her get used to living in a house until she found a permanent home, but she’s such a special wee dog that we fell in love with her and couldn’t let her go. I have fibromyalgia and don’t leave my house much because of my condition. I think a lot of people are finding lockdown to be like what life is normally like for me, being stuck in the house and isolated. I feel that as the world has slowed down due to coronavirus, my mental health has improved because there’s no pressure on me to go out and do the things that I used to be able to.
When I talk to friends about how hectic their lives were before lockdown, and when I think about how stressful my life was before I was diagnosed – and I believe that’s why I’m in this position because I was living life at 100 miles an hour – I think a long-term positive side-effect of the pandemic is that we might take life at a slower pace.
My garden has been my sanctuary with the good weather, and the dogs are the best kind of therapy. They’re so gentle and loving and don’t need a lot of exercise, so it means my support network can easily walk them for me.
These dogs are like giant cats, they’d sleep and eat all day if you let them, and when I’m not well they don’t leave my side.
I don’t think you could have better companions in lockdown or in life. ●As told to Elaine Livingstone, in line with social distancing guidelines. If you know someone you think should be featured in our Lockdown Lives, please get in touch.
AUTHOR Jenny Colgan’s Lakeland terrier Nora had a litter of five pups last January. She kept one male pup, Ned, and has been regularly sharing videos and pictures of the pair’s antics including a film where you can hear Jenny, 47, and her husband laughing as Ned jumps about their garden trying to catch bees. She said: “Hey kids, don’t eat bees.”
STV weatherman Sean Batty recently baked a lockdown birthday cake for his cavapoo Harris, who has been been making guest appearances in several of the weather forecasts Sean has been presenting from his home.
He said: “Harris, my little cavapoo, has featured in quite a few broadcasts and seems to have found himself a little fan base from some of the messages I’ve had on social media.”
Sean, 38, has been known to dress like his dog – posting a photo of them both in red jackets with matching faux-fur lined hoods.
Sean said: “He’s such a copy cat.”
SINGER Amy, 32, had a traumatic start to lockdown after a vet advised her pet dog Arnold needed his eye removed due to a medical condition.
She and footballer husband Richard Foster posted a picture of them sleeping on the floor alongside the miniature schnauzer to keep him company following the op.
Amy said: “With all the craziness going on in the world it actually helped me to just focus on my beautiful fur baby. Thankfully he’s better now.
“He is so demanding, even more so during lockdown but he makes me laugh so much and has so much love to give.
“I can’t wait for the rules to relax a bit because he desperately needs a haircut. I’m willing to mess up my husband’s hair but I wouldn’t risk it on my boy.”