Animal magic: how my pet saved me
I said: “No, I’m getting a dog in the morning.” They looked at me like, “So?” But it felt massive to me. That morning, my boyfriend and I drove to a place near the M25 to meet the man with the lurcher. The dog walked towards us and was a bit sad-looking, really dirty and smelled terrible. But he was still so elegant and funny, too.
It was exciting having this other little soul come into our tiny orbit. I put myself on “peternity leave” and Wolfy, as we called him, and I just hung out for a while. We’d go for lunch together and on lots of walks. He loved it.
Obviously he’s simple, he’s an animal, but his presence pulled me out of myself and centred me back to a calm part of myself. I was 45 and had worked as a freelancer in London for 25 years and was pretty hardened. But he softened me and helped me love unconditionally. I now had a reason to come home at night. I still went to parties, but in a less destructive way. Sometimes I’d take him with me and he’d just look at me like, “What the fuck? Let’s go home.” And I’d be like, “Yeah, you’re right.”
It’s been an ongoing thing since then to disentangle from doing things that harm me. And to do things that make my short time on this earth joyful and positive; Wolfy is my daily lesson in how to live that life.
Kate Spicer’s book Lost Dog: A Love Story is published by Ebury. Order it for £14.95 from guardianbookshop.com
‘My cat alerted me to cancerous cells in my breast’: Angela Tinning, 46, finance manager, and Missy the cat, 7, Newcastle
We got Missy as a kitten and gave her that name because she was quite the diva. Our family immediately loved her, but she didn’t necessarily show that she loved us back. She didn’t like being picked up or cuddled. Everything was