May - Jamo’s Story
“You are not what happened to you, you are what you choose to become”
Read my story
“In early 2019, a blurry photo changed everything. It was a photo of a chocolate Labrador, hunched, anxious, and unwanted. The message said she was
“free” - because she could no longer produce puppies. Her usefulness, in their eyes, had expired.
But from the moment we saw her, we knew. She was never going to spend another night in that house. And she didn’t.
She came to us with nothing. No lead. No bed. No bowl. No toys. No confidence. No peace.
She had spent the first seven years of her life bouncing between homes, only to be discarded by breeders when she could no longer give them litters. But what she had - buried under the nervous energy, the scars, the trauma - was a soul that was ready to heal, and to love.
My Grandad, who was caring for my Nana at the time, said it best as we lifted her into the car:
“She is never coming back here again.”
The first few months with Coco weren’t easy. She was everything Rufus (our family’s Black Labrador) wasn’t - chaotic where he was calm, anxious where he was gentle. She didn’t know how to walk beside us. She didn’t know how to rest. She rushed everything - her food, her thoughts, her movements - as if time had always been something she had to fight.
But then she watched Rufus. She followed his lead. She mirrored his patience. And slowly, day by day, she began to change.
We had two beautiful years with them together - the most unlikely duo, deeply bonded. And then, heartbreak struck. On Christmas Eve 2022, Coco nearly passed away. A grass seed lodged in her lung caused severe fluid build-up. She spent Christmas, Boxing Day, and New Year in hospital. We almost lost her. And then, the same time a year later, we did lose Rufus.
The grief was unbearable. Loving Coco was hard when we didn’t even know how to love ourselves through the loss. But she never left my side. She walked with me. Slept by me. Waited. Watched. Gave more than she took.
And slowly, she began to change again. She softened. She matured. She opened. Our bond became something different - something deeper. I saw Rufus in her. And I saw myself in her, too. She made me laugh. She helped me cry. She brought me back.
From then on, Coco became my right hand and the Chief Operating Officer of Mission Planet. Everyone in our community knows her. Everyone loves her. She’s our gentle matriarch and our most famous ambassador.
And as I write this, she’s just 10 days away from her 14th birthday - meaning she has now been with us for as long as she was without us.
In every sense of the word, Coco is the proof.
Proof that a dog discarded by the world can become your world.
Proof that even when you rescue a dog, it’s often they who rescue you.
Proof that love, given time, heals everything.
She is safe now. She is home. She is, always, loved.”
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