It mutt be love
Adopting a rescue pup is life-changing, as a book about hit show The Dog House proves
Channel 4 series The Dog House has captured hearts across the nation, following prospective adopters as they search for a new friend at animal rehoming centre Wood Green. Now, a touching book, Finding A Forever Home, goes behind the scenes to meet incredible rescuers and their equally incredible four-legged friends. Here are two of our favourite waggy tales…
OBI AND MIKE
When Mike left school, he joined the Marines. Years later, unable to talk about his feelings during his time there, all the pent-up emotions that he’d pushed away eventually came to the fore, building up into the perfect storm.
For a few months, he had trouble sleeping. His brain just wouldn’t allow him to rest. “It sounds like you’ve got complex PTSD,” his GP told him. After 14 months of therapy and medication, Mike was finally on the road to recovery. But he felt he needed something else to help him move on. “I think I’m going to get a dog,” he told his wife, Tracy.
The couple headed to Wood
Green, where the team introduced them to an 11-week-old red setter cross puppy called Obi. The next few weeks were a battle, with every waking hour spent feeding Obi, walking him and taking him to puppy training classes. Trips to the cricket field near Mike and Tracy’s home became a fivetimes-a-day occurrence.
Now, thanks to Obi, Mike chats away to the other dog walkers. Mike has started to feel part of a community and is getting back to his old self.
MIDNIGHT, JOANNE
AND TONY
After five
years of trying to conceive, Joanne and Tony turned to IVF. But the disappointment each time the IVF failed became harder to bear and Tony was struggling.
“Let’s get a dog,” Joanne suggested. Perhaps a dog would make them feel like a proper family. The staff at Wood Green came up with one option – Midnight the Patterjack – a Patterdale crossed with a Jack Russell. Tony and Joanne were smitten.
A couple of weeks after the dog, now called Buddy, arrived, they started their last round of IVF – and in April 2020, baby Willow was born.
Buddy arrived when Tony and Joanne needed him the most. He has brought them so much joy and now, with Willow too, they feel complete.