The dog that changed our lives

In August of 2011 I met James through my cousin and we instantly hit it off, which was helped by the fact that James loved Benson, my dearly beloved 3 year old Boxer dog. We soon moved in together and in early 2012 we decided to add another puppy to the family. Growing up as a kid, James had a Boxer cross Collie called Dax and really wanted to find the same breed. Having a boxer in the mix was a win for me so we started searching and found a litter which had been born on 1st January 2012, ready to collect in March. So, off we went to Wales and came home with Hunter (later to also be known as Piglet). Little did we know at the time that Hunter was to be the one to drastically change our way of life, and even the country we lived in!

From left to right: James, Benson, Hunter and me, 2013

18 months after bringing Hunter home, we started noticing he was limping. Initially we put it down to the fact he was a totally nutty Boxer cross Border Collie who ran around like a lunatic for most of his waking hours; he had probably just pulled a muscle. Unfortunately this very quickly turned from the idea of an innocent injury to something more serious when his limping got considerably worse and he was struggling to walk, let alone run. After X-rays from the vet we found out he had severe Arthritis in both his front elbows. He wasn't even 2 years old at this point, and the vets said it didn't look good. Their advice was to limit his exercise to one, maybe two, 10 minute walks a day (on the lead) and gave us a load of painkillers to give him everyday. They had suggested that it was probably kinder to put him to sleep as there was nothing they could do and his condition would only get worse meaning he would have a very poor quality of life. I was beside myself, I swore to James that we would do whatever it takes to find a way for him to live comfortably, there had to be something we could do and we were not giving up on him that easily. Fortunately James agreed.

First thing was first, we ditched the vet! Now to find another… I had been working part time at a horse yard and the girls there had told me about the vet they use, his name was Mark Elliott and he was a homeopathic vet based in Oving, Chichester. We got an appointment and the first question Mark asked us was ‘what are you feeding him?’. I told him I was buying a very expensive, top quality kibble. Instantly he said ‘Stop! Get him and Benson off the grain and feed them a raw food diet’. Crikey, there I was thinking I had been buying the best for my boys and it turns out these dry food kibbles which are packed with grains were the worst thing I could be feeding my dogs! He sent us away with a homeopathic remedy to give Hunter each day and told me to immediately stop using the painkillers the other vet had provided as they actually eat away at cartilage, something which was already severely depleted in Hunter's poor elbows, and to start them on their new raw food diet. Within a week we had already seen an improvement! Hunter was able to get up from sleeping without looking like he was in agony, and his limp was not so severe. Within a month, his limp had gone and he was back to his normal self, able to walk, run, jump and play. We were astonished! Surprisingly, it wasn’t just Hunter we had noticed a difference in. Benson, who was normally a bit of a lazy sod actually seemed to have more energy and both of them had coats which shone like diamonds! 

Benson and hunter

Seeing the difference a change of diet and a natural remedy had made on the dogs, got me thinking about our diet and the medicines we take. If feeding a dog the food it was designed to eat could have such a profound difference on their overall health, what impact was our diet having on our health? Up until this point we ate like everyone else we knew… I cooked dinners with meat and fresh veg most nights and we had our big Sunday roasts, but we also stopped in at Mcdonalds now and again, have takeaways every so often when I couldn't be bothered to cook or for a ‘treat’, sugary snacks, drinks and processed junk foods etc. But what I had never thought of was what these ‘easy’ foods contained, or where the meat I was buying came from or how it had been raised, or what had been sprayed onto the vegetables I was eating… and I was horrified when I did the research and found out the answers! The same went for the medicines we were using without a second thought; those painkillers we took for that mild headache, the throat sweets or cough syrups so quickly shoved down our throats at the first sign of a sniffle. All the things we just did without thinking… well my eyes were now wide open to them and it was not something I could, or wanted to ignore. It was now a necessity to start finding out where our food came from and what it contained, what medicines we used, what products we bought to put on our skins and in our homes. I started to buy differently, actually checking labels and sourcing local, well raised meat and buying organic vegetables. I also knew I had to start growing some of our own food. We had a decent sized garden, so I created a vegetable patch and got some chickens for meat and eggs. The bug had bitten us both and before long we wanted to grow more of our own food. If I was going to eat meat, I wanted to raise the animals myself to know they had had the life they deserved including fresh air, space to roam and a natural, species relevant diet. The problem was that we needed more land. Unfortunately, if you want to buy yourself a nice 25 acre plot in Chichester, that's going to set you back a tidy million pounds, and that's if you can find it in the first place! So we started thinking a little further afield. We were thinking about Wales, but then my parents had mentioned they were thinking about getting a holiday home in France. James and I were browsing online at French properties to see what sort of thing they might be looking at. Turns out, you can get a lot more for your money just across the water. The only snag was they speak a different language, but hey, we could learn. We suggested to my parents that we could find somewhere that we could live full time but had a second property for them to use as their holiday home...just a few months later we had found a 50 acre property with 2 houses, multiple barns with plenty of scope for renovations and no neighbours in sight. So on 8th June 2016 we left our old life behind to start our new adventure in the gorgeous French countryside of the Normandie Maine National Park!

our new home in france

Oh, and Hunter… He lived until he was over 9 years old!!! Thank heavens we hadn’t listened to that first opinion of putting him to sleep when he wasn’t even 2! Both he and Benson are sorely missed and will never be forgotten. Never underestimate the impact dogs can have on your life, if it wasn’t for mine, we wouldn’t be where we are today!

Hunter at 8 and a half years old

In my future blogs I will be going into a lot more detail on some of the subjects briefly mentioned in this article, including; why to raw feed dogs, how to clean up your eating habits, sourcing the best food for your health, growing your own vegetables and raising chickens. I will also share with you how we have found living in France as well as our research and knowledge gained on starting and running a farm and so much more, so keep an eye out for my up and coming Blogs.