Where is 'home' for a dog? It's in the relationship with their human. The rest is unimportant

I’d known Alan and Twist for years. Twist had a sharp bend at the end of his long, graceful tail, caused by some trauma in his previous life as a racing greyhound in Ireland. Alan had rehomed Twist from someone else in the hostel. The dog had been left alone a lot and howled, causing complaints. 

Alan said, “I’ll take him.” There followed 10 years of what, to me, as a vet of over 30 years’ experience, seemed the ideal existence for a dog – living with a homeless person for whom the dog is the single most important being in that person’s life, their most significant other.  

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In summer, they often camped out in one of the many green spaces in the city – Alan had a good tent. They moved around a fair bit. In winter, they were usually back in the hostel, one of the few dog-friendly ones at that time. The pair were never apart.

They were one of the first customers at our student-run pop-up vet clinic, and Twist was fitted with a range of snazzy coats over the years. He was a great favourite and would often try to steal the home baking the students sometimes brought along. 

Dogs don’t live as long as we do and over a period of months it became clear that Twist, now 13, was not doing well. Alan came in one day and said Twist had told him it was time, so we put him to sleep on a blanket on the clinic floor with Alan lying beside him. It was a sad moment but also a peaceful and beautiful one, at the end of what had been a charmed life for this ex-racer who had once graced the racetracks at Kilkenny.  

Alan was understandably bereft. He kept coming to the clinic even although he had no dog and one day asked me how he might go about getting another. I suggested a rehoming charity. They often have dogs with behaviour problems who are difficult to place.

Alan said he would like a dog like that, to give them another chance. I had full confidence he would succeed and said I would write a reference. Dog rehoming charities can impose strict criteria, even down to the exact dimensions of fenced garden you have at your disposal. 

As a city flat dweller, I failed on those criteria. Alan, too, was unsuccessful in his attempts to give a dog a home – because he himself didn’t have a home. What is ‘a home’ anyway? A US advocacy group for people experiencing homelessness is called My Dog Is My Home.  

Read more:

• No one should face homelessness alone: How Dogs Trust keeps homeless people and their dogs together
• The Wanted star Nathan Sykes shares how dogs give him purpose: ‘I can’t imagine not having a dog’
• ‘I’m so lucky’: How one man went from drinking himself to death to rescuing thousands of stray dogs

Alan was turned down by organisations who, it seemed, preferred to keep their dogs in cages than rehome to someone who did not fit with certain criteria of ‘responsible dog ownership’. This is an area that needs to be addressed. It’s the elephant in the room when we talk about supporting people experiencing homelessness and their dogs.

What happens when someone loses a dog? What comes next? Fortunately, Alan found another dog, another lucky hound who found their best home with someone experiencing homelessness. I have seen plenty examples of this over the years. 

We need to try to see things from the dog’s point of view, and to show empathy and compassion to both parties in this relationship. Where is home for a dog? It’s in the relationship with their human. The rest is unimportant. 

Andrew Gardiner is professor of veterinary medical humanities at the Royal (Dick) School of Veterinary Studies, University of Edinburgh. He has managed a student-run outreach veterinary clinic for people experiencing homelessness and their companion animals in Edinburgh for 15 years. The UK charity StreetVet works nationally providing similar services. 

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