Neil Morrissey

The Pedigree Adoption Drive is the latest of our campaigns to raise money for dog re-homing charities. Here are a few of the charities involved.

I adopted Tiggy, my six year old rescue dog from The Mayhew Animal Home in Kensal Rise three years ago. She was actually rescued by a family from there when she was a puppy but they sadly abandoned her on the streets shortly afterward - they presumably felt they could not cope with her.

I have no idea why - she is the most lovely and well behaved dog and it didn’t take long to housetrain her at all. She is half Jack Russell but there are other parts to her which we can’t quite work out!

My girlfriend Emma has always wanted a dog. In fact, when we were filling out the forms at The Mayhew Animal Home and the question was asked “How long have you wanted a dog for?” she said 34 years! Her family are cat people so she never had a dog when she was growing up. I was brought up with dogs but hadn’t had one for twenty odd years so was dying to get another one.

We picked Tiggy over the other dogs because she was a good size for our house and she has a very calm temperament. When we went to The Mayhew Animal Home we were allowed to take a few dogs out for walks. When we took Tiggy out she was really well behaved, she didn’t pull on her lead and we decided that she was just right for us. As she’s quite small she doesn’t need a massive amount of exercise either. For example if we don’t have time to take her out for a long walk she’s ok with just running round the block.
I love the way Tiggy is always there for us when we wake up. She’s always happy to see us and showers us with unconditional love. She is the calming effect in the house. However, she is also very cheeky and gives us lots of laughs, including her SAS skills that enable her to get into our bedroom and onto our bed in the middle of the night without being detected. She has changed our life, in the same way that people create a new routine when they have a baby we now have a routine built around Tiggy. We make time to walk her and even pack her an overnight bag when she comes with us on our travels!

People say that owners are often like their dogs, I’m not hugely like Tiggy but she is like me in that she doesn’t always worry too much about her appearance! Also she likes the things I like. Although I’d never give her beer to drink she always shows a big interest if I have a pint in my hand! If I ever spill any beer on my fingers she’ll always lick it off, so I know she likes the finer things in life like me.

I fully support The Pedigree Adoption Drive Campaign because it is a really worthwhile cause. Owning a dog is so rewarding and I’d recommend it to anyone. There are so many great dogs in rescue centres that deserve a loving home. Rescue centres are dependent on charitable donations that are run mostly by volunteers and they always have the dogs’ welfare in mind.

My advice to anyone thinking of getting a dog is to do pay a visit to your local rescue centre. You can pick up any type of dog from the most mixed breed to a pedigree. The centres are great at giving you advice and helping you to choose the best dog for your family. Pedigree is aiming to raise £500,000 which will be donated to rescue centres who desperately need these funds to carry on looking after abandoned dogs. I am thinking of getting Tiggy a friend and will most definitely be looking at getting a rescue dog for her to play with.