Before meeting my fluffy-eared friend, I had lost my brother and was exhausted by the hamster wheel of work. His zest has made me feel alive
M
y trip to South America in 2025 was something I’d been planning for a long time. I wanted to break up my mundane 9-to-5 life. Four months before I was due to leave, I broke my back and thought I might have to cancel. Luckily, I pulled through.
I was expecting breathtaking views, vibrant wildlife and memories to last a lifetime. What I wasn’t expecting was to fall in love with a fluffy-eared street dog and spend four months battling bureaucracy and world travel to bring him home. But I’d do it all over again in a heartbeat.
A little dog with the most adorable eyes showed up at my hammock outside my cabin in Ollantaytambo, a village in the Sacred Valley in the mountains of Peru. He was skinny and alone, living on scraps to survive, but still full of excitement. He followed me around 24/7 and slept outside my room. He decided, for reasons unknown to me, that wherever I was was exactly where he wanted to be.
