‘I FILLED THE GAP BY GETTING A DOG’
Kim O’donnell, 60, lives in Stafford, and runs her own pet accessory company, Leo, Charley and Me
Even now, whenever I think about when my three children – Sami, now 31, Zaki, 29, and Hannah, 26 – left home, it still brings a tear to my eye.
I had taken a break from my job as a nurse from when Sami was born until Hannah was three, and I can honestly say those 10 years were the happiest of my life. We had such an amazing time, pond dipping, picnicking, going out on our bikes. They were the best children I could have asked for.
So when Sami left to go to Manchester when he was 18, my heart broke. When we got home having dropped him off, it felt like there was a hole inside of me. I couldn’t talk for hours. With Zaki, I was more prepared but the pain stung just as keenly. And when Hannah left, the house was like a graveyard. It just felt so strange.
At the same time, I developed Sjögren’s syndrome, which left me with gastric problems, arthritis and sore joints, and the medication gave me a leaky heart. As I spent more time at home, recovering, my husband, Clive, now 63, and I re-evaluated what we wanted out of life.
We had a list of things we were going to do when we retired – one of them was get a dog. By coincidence, my friend’s dog was having puppies and so we thought, why wait? When we got Leo, a red labrador, in 2016, I knew instantly we’d made the right decision. I cut my working hours in half to look after him, and as I cuddled and fed him, it filled the nurturing gap I’d desperately missed.
We got a second dog, Charley, a rescue spaniel in 2018. Because of her name, everyone thought she was a boy, so I started making her flowery collars. Soon, I was getting requests and, before long, I was able to leave my nursing job to set up my own business.
My two gorgeous fur babies have not only improved my health and given me a new direction in life, they’ve also made my empty nest a little less empty. ✢ leocharleyandme.co.uk
‘The house was like a graveyard, it just felt so strange’