Dias

German Shepherds were in her family long before Dias. Her gran kept them, and she was learning to train them from the age of four. She begged her parents for one for years and never got it, so the plan was set: the first place of her own would have a German Shepherd in it.

It happened sooner than she'd planned. She came across a breeder out of the blue and fell for Dias through a screen before she'd even met him. A week later she went to see him and just knew he was hers. "Looking back, it genuinely felt like fate."

Before Dias, she felt lost. She was stuck in unhealthy patterns, and every day felt the same. Then there was someone who depended on her and a reason to get up every morning. Her days filled up with walks, fresh air and quiet evenings at home, with Dias beside her through all of it.

Some people look at a life built around a dog and see the planning and the things you give up. She sees freedom: "For the first time in my life, I feel genuinely free."

They do everything together now. She can read the smallest change in his body language, and he understands her without a word. Some days, just having him there is enough.

She wanted him on her arm as a reminder of the dog who changed her life, so he goes wherever she goes. "If I could go back to that moment, falling in love with him through a screen, knowing everything I know now, I'd choose him a thousand times over."

“Some people might see a tattoo of a dog. I see the face of the one who changed my life.”