Note: Jasper grew up in a loving family. I didn’t rescue him.

Six years ago, I was house sitting for a client. Jasper was the dog I was looking after, while his Mom headed out of town to visit her daughter for the week.

Jasper didn’t take to me at first, but I peaked his interest around dinner time, when I demonstrated knowledge of how a can opener worked. That first night Jasper slept at the foot of the bed, his nose pointed towards the front door, waiting for his Mom to come home. He wasn’t too impressed about having to share the bed with me.

A couple of days in and Jasper was starting to warm up. He’d moved from the foot of the bed, to under the covers, but he was still pretty aloof.

Over the Easter Weekend I’d made plans to head to Tofino with a friend, so I packed Jasper into his dog crate, and loaded him into the back of my friend’s car for a seven hour road/ferry trip to the west coast of Vancouver Island.

Jasper was terrified!

Turns out he’s not a big fan of creates…or car rides…and definitely not ferries!!

There were four of us staying in a little cabin. The plan was to eat lots of food, drink lots of coffee, and spend my time exploring the beaches with Jasper, while the others were out surfing.

There was only one bedroom, so Jasper, Kevin and I camped in the living room with our sleeping bags and roll mats. Turns out Jasper was scared of sleeping bags too!!

When it came to bed time I tried to put Jasper back in his crate, but he wasn’t having any of it. He whined, and scratched at the door, everyone in that little cabin would have heard it. So I let him out, hoping he would settle amongst the sleeping bags. Instead he paced around the room, his long nails clattering on the wooden floor, making even more noise. I was starting to feel the pressure. I didn’t want to be “that” guest.

Every couple of minutes Jasper would step onto my sleeping bag, it would make a rustling noise, he’d jump off and pace around again. In desperation I finally grabbed him, hugging him close, pulling my sleeping bag over the two of us. At last he was able to settle, and as long as the sleeping bag didn’t make a noise, he was fine.

Something between us changed that first night in the cabin. Jasper went from aloof and indifferent, to attentive and engaged. We had awesome adventures on the beach, and every night he’d invite himself into my sleeping bag and we’d snuggle up together.

At the end of the trip we headed home, but I had fallen in love.

My last evening with Jasper was a little tearful. His Mom was due home that night, so I’d packed my things, and was sitting on the floor writing her a quick email.

“…Jasper is an amazing dog, such a loving little soul. If you ever had to re-home him I would take him in a heart beat.”

The crazy thing is, I have never said that to anyone before! Out of all the wonderful puppy clients I’d ever worked with, not once did I ever tell someone that I wanted to take their pup home…but I did that night, and I meant it.

The next morning I had a reply from Jasper’s Mom. She wanted to chat.

Unknown to me at the time, Jasper’s Mom had been thinking about what was best for him. Since her daughter had moved out, Jasper was becoming increasingly depressed at home. That combined with long work hours, and a new baby in the family, meant there was very little time left for him.

Long story short, two months later I’m driving a moving van across town, filled with boxes, potted plants…and Jasper.

I picked Jasper up the day I moved into my tiny, new place in Kits. We lived there happily by ourselves for four months, then I met an amazing guy called Craig.

Fast forward five years. I recently married that amazing guy. We now have Georgia, who’s almost three, and Jack who just turned eight months. We gave up our 450 sq ft laneway in Kitsilano, for a five acer hobby farm on Vancouver Island. We have seven chickens, two greenhouses, and a farm stand at the end of the lane were we sell Mason jars of fresh roasted coffee beans. Jasper still sleeps under the covers.

Tofino is now only 2.5 hours away.

How I fell in love with Jasper.

saffrina@yourseniordog.ca