We saved each other

When tragedy devastated her life, Viviana Perestrelo, 29, turned to a very special friend

- ANNA MATHESAN

Waking up in my double bed, I reached for a cuddle from my six-year-old German Shepherd, Jess. Ruffling her fur and feeling her wet nose nudge my cheek made me smile, grateful not to have woken alone. While my partner, Kevin, and I, rescued her from an animal shelter three years earlier, Jess was the one who ended up saving me, and, without her, I wouldn’t have a reason to get up each morning.

My parents always had rescue pups while I was growing up in Portugal, so it was a prerequisite that any future partner loved dogs as much as me. Luckily, when I grilled Kevin, then 26, on our first date in 2011, he said yes, he was very much a dog person, too.

Within a few months, we’d rented a flat together in Gran Canaria, where we were based, Kevin as a pilot and me as cabin crew. We worked away too often to get a dog, but those first few years together were incredible. At work, Kevin would crack jokes, making our shifts literally fly by, and on days off we’d go hiking or swimming.

Getting settled in

By 2017, though, we’d settled in Bedford, living across the road from Kevin’s parents, Len and Carol, and I’d transferred to an office role.

‘It’s finally time to get a rescue dog,’ I beamed at Kevin one night. He agreed, laughing when I told him I’dalready been scouring the RSPCA’s website and seen the perfect pup.

‘Of course you have,’ he grinned, and shortly after, we drove to the kennels in Birmingham to visit her. Jess, then three, bounded over, giving me a lick on the hand, and we were both smitten.

‘We’ll take her,’ Kevin told the rescue workers. Kevin’s dad had grown up with a German Shepherd, so he loved the idea of following the same pattern.