The Decibel - Bark! The Herald Angels Sing: how people met their pets

Episode Date: December 24, 2025

The winter holidays are a time to cozy up with family – even if those family members are furry and of a different species. For many, dogs and cats aren’t just animals, they’re cherished loved ones who come into our lives at the exact moment we need them.This holiday season, The Decibel’s editor David Crosbie, Globe and Mail staffers and Canadians share personal stories about how they met their pets and how caring for them has changed their lives.Questions? Comments? Ideas? Email us at [e-mail] Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hey everyone, it's Cheryl, and I'm here with David Crosby. Dave, can you just tell people who you are? They might recognize your name from the credits, but give us a sense of who you are and what you mean to the show. Sure, yeah. I'm the decibels editor, so that's all kinds of editorial and audio stuff, and I have been here since the very beginning. Yeah.

So Dave, here at the Despel around the holiday season, we'd like to do something that's a little bit more festive, maybe, or something a little bit more heartwarming, because of course the news can be very heavy, right? And so we generally have these pitch sessions where we talk about what are the holiday episodes that we're going to do. And you actually came with a very fun pitch. Can you talk about what you pitched and what we'll be listening to today? Yeah. So I came with the idea and it came from a conversation with one of our colleagues that people might want to not only share, but also hear the stories of how other people came to know their pets. And the more we talked about it around the newsroom, the more people, the more

became quite clear that, you know, sort of everybody has one of these stories. And I asked people to share their stories with us at the decibel and kind of really left it open to them to highlight, you know, what it was about their relationship with their pet that really meant so much to them. And I also demanded from everybody that they record their pet when possible. A couple of them were not particularly cooperative, apparently. But we will be hearing some delightful stories today about how people came to know their pets as well as from the pet. themselves. Incredible. I was going to say, of course, these are going to be stories from the humans, but I'm so glad that we're also going to get to hear kind of the opinions of the pets as

well. It's important to hear their perspective, too. Yeah. And, you know, something that the decibel team knows very well, but our listeners probably don't, is that you also are the father? What would you say? You have a dog named Millie that we're very lucky to get some photos of every once in a while in our chats. And I'm curious. I actually don't know the story of how you came to meet Millie. What is that story? Well, it was 2020. It was the first year of the lockdowns on the pandemic. And my partner and I were looking for a dog. And all the shelters were empty, which was obviously fantastic. All the rescues were empty. Everybody had, you know, kind of the same thought before we did that they wanted to get a dog. So we were out driving in the country. And

We were going down a not too busy highway, but still a highway, you know, kind of a posted 80 limit. And we saw these dogs kind of running across the street. So we pulled over and we're like, this is not safe. Dogs should not be, you know, loose on the highway. So we got out of the car and one of them ran away. And the other one came right over to us and her tail was wagging. And we were kind of looking at each other. You know, she was rolling around and we're just like, is this our dog?

Is this, you know, the magical story of how we met her dog? And it wasn't. A few minutes later, somebody in a truck pulled up and said, oh, my God, you know, thank you. You found my dog. And we were kind of, you know, cursing out of our breath. We were saying, like, I kind of thought this was going to be our dog. And we told her, you know, we thought, like, we were kind of hoping that this was maybe how we met our dog. And she said, no, no, I'm sorry, this is my dog.

But she is pregnant. And if you'd like one of her puppies, you can have one of her puppies. So we got one of her puppies. And this was in the town of Millgrove. So we named her Millie for Millgrove. Oh, my God. I love that story. How incredible is that, you know, you felt this kind of feeling about this one dog and then maybe like this high and then this is disappointment and then back to this high of like, you know what? You can have one of this dog's pups. That's an incredible story, Dave. Yeah, yeah, thanks. It was really special. It was, again, talking to her colleague, Marsha Laterman. I told her this story, and she said, well, you know what you should do is a Christmas episode where people tell you all the stories of how they met their pets. So that's what we did. And of course, Marsha told us the story of how she met her pet, and that's up first. Okay, Dave, so without further ado, let's get to these, I'm sure, very adorable stories. I'm Cheryl Sutherland, and this is the decibel from the Globe and Mail.

I'm going to start by explaining that I don't really believe in fate, but I don't know, maybe I do. I might make an exception when it comes to my cat, Lucy. Lucy? So my plan for my son's eighth birthday was to give him a kitten. But then some work travel got scheduled, and it did. didn't feel like a good idea to get a kitten and then skip town a few weeks later. So my promise was that the day I got home from Whitehorse, that very day, we would go to the SPCA and get ourselves a kitten. So I made good on the promise. I picked my son up from his friend's house immediately

after I landed. We went right to the SPCA and we asked for a kitten. And the person behind the counter said, oh, this isn't really the time of year for kittens. Oh, boy. But then another woman behind the counter said, oh, actually, we do have one. Somebody surrendered a kitten today. So, of course, I wondered why did this kitten get surrendered? They didn't seem to know. Maybe the kitten was chewing on cords. They weren't sure. So, but, you know, anyway, did we want to meet her? So we went to the cat room and there was Lincoln, as she had been called by her surrendering owner who had thought that she was a boy, Little Lincoln, black and very fluffy. And of course, we knew immediately. About 20 minutes after we got into the cat room,

another parent and child looking to adopt a kitten came in. But there was only one kitten there that day and she was already ours. We renamed her Lucy from Lincoln. And I have so often thought about what if I hadn't had that work trip scheduled? What if I had decided to give it a day after flying home before going to the SPCA? What if my flight from from Yukon had been delayed by even 30 minutes. What if I had decided to unpack before grabbing my son and going to the SPCA? If any of those things might have happened, Lucy might have gone to another family. But she didn't.

She is now part of ours. We love her more than words can say. And that remains true even when on the odd occasion she choose up our cords. Happy holidays everyone What you just heard there was my dog dog sal barking at the mailman as he walks by on January 1st it'll be eight years that we've been together I picked him up from a breeder just outside of Peterborough

Ontario eight years ago And the story of how we met has to do with a trip down to actually see that breeder. I'd put a deposit down for Sal when I was actually sitting in a city council meeting when I was reporting in Ottawa. And I was just bored to tears one of those city council meetings that are just interminable. And nothing seems to be happening. And I was sending an email to the breeder asking if they had any puppies available because I was just desperate for a little bit of companionship. And so I ended up, you know, filling out the questionnaire and answering all the breeder's questions and I sent that deposit that very day. And so a few weeks later, my girlfriend

at the time and I drove down to the Breeders House just outside of Peterborough. And I always thought I wanted a female puppy. I was going to name her Molly. And so there were two of the puppies left, these two black females and then Sal, this brown and white kind of oaf, he seemed much larger than the rest of them. And so they brought the puppies out and we were sitting on the floor of the breeder's house and I was sort of playing with the two female puppies to see if I sort of clicked with either of them, I guess you could say. And Sal just sort of walked up to me. I was sitting sort of cross-legged on the floor and he just climbed into my lap and he fell asleep. And that's sort of, I decided, well, he's clearly made his choice. Who am I to disagree with it?

And that changed my mind. It felt like it really felt like he had picked me that I was the one for him and I thought, you know, that's got to be it. So I chose. So was Sal, and then a few weeks later, after that, on January 1st, drove down and picked him up, wrapped him in a blanket and brought him all the way home to my apartment in Ottawa. And then about six months after that, when I moved back to Edmonton for a job, he came with me. He rode the whole way in the back of my car, and we've been together ever since. I was following a cat rescue on Instagram, and they had posted about, This gray tabby with the most beautiful, soulful, green eyes. She had a really sweet story.

She'd been spotted on farmland near Guelph, Ontario. And this rescue had tried to trap her several times over the course of a year, and she had evaded their trap every single time. Then suddenly one day she just walked up to one of the rescue staff and let herself be picked up and placed in the trap like that's what she wanted. It turns out that she was pregnant. And there was some sort of complication, and she ended up needing to get an emergency C-section to save her kittens. So it's like she knew she needed the help of humans and decided she was done with the feral life.

And what tickled me about the story is that the rescue then named her kittens after the veterinary staff that helped deliver them. So somewhere out there are her children with not very pet-like. names like Katie and Daniel. I love the story so much. I applied to adopt her. The rescue called me up to make sure I was up to the task and they said that she had like a super loud meow. Like if you make eye contact with her, she will talk to you. And I thought, how bad could that be? So at the time I was in St. Catherine's, Ontario with my family and I made the entire gang, including my historically pet-resistant dad drive 100 plus kilometers from St. Catherine's to Guelph, Ontario to pick up this cat. She yelled at me the moment I laid eyes on her. She yelled the whole one-and-a-half-hour

journey back home and proved herself to be like so neurotic but lovable. And they really weren't kidding about her meow. She kind of sounded like a police siren when she was excited. She also clicked and quacked. And I named her Olive because of her beautiful green eyes. Hello, my name. Dara. I'm the proud owner of a nearly nine-year-old Samoyd. His name is Jackson, Jacko for short, are to give him his proper title, Samoyed L Jackson. And Jacko is a very unusual origin story, shall we say. So I moved over to Canada from Ireland about 10 years ago. And nearly nine

years ago now in the summer of 2017, a friend of mine who had been contemplating getting a dog decided to take the plunge. And I had encouraged her to get a samoye if she was getting a dog. We had one as our family dog back in Ireland and they're just a great breed. So she decided to buy herself a dog. I had offered to help out with if she needed people to walk the dog, look after the dog while she was away for a weekend or for a trip or anything like that. So I went out to London and Ontario to help her pick up the dog.

And as she was driving, I took ownership of the dog who basically fit in the palm of my hand. So I sat in the back of the car while my friend drove his home. And at first I was actually wondering whether we'd maybe even given a little defective pup because he just kind of sat there shivering

and not really reacting to anything. And then after a few minutes, he kind of shook his little head and jumped up with his paws on my chest and got my nose a little lick. And that was it. Love at second side, I guess. So anyway, that was the start of May when we picked him up. So he was a couple of months old then.

And in July, I went home to Dublin to attend a friend's wedding. And I got a very frazzled Zoom call. call from my friend while I was away. She looked absolutely exhausted. I could see the dog in the background charging around, jumping on furniture and generally causing a mess. So she begged me to take care of him for a week or two just to give her a break when I got back from Ireland. And I was only too happy to. So I suppose around the end of July, August, I took little Jacko into my home for the first time and as the weeks went by I decided I didn't want to call my friend in case she asked for her dog back and as it turns out she didn't want to call me because she didn't

want to take him back so a couple of weeks became a month became a couple of months and eventually my housemaid at the time was the one who made contact with my friend to figure out when she was taking her dog back and found out that she wasn't. And to be honest, I don't know what I would do with my time. If I didn't have him, it's been an absolute joy. I can't believe that anyone would want to give him up. But it's worked out beautifully for me. Now, he's a bit of a handful. He's very energetic, very excitable. It needs about three hours walking a day. But I don't know what I did with my time before I had him. And yeah, it's been an absolute joy having him

and I love every day with my pupper that was never meant to be. There's a good boy. There's a good boy. We'll be right back. So first I'll describe big guy. He's got orange hair, no teeth, a bit of a weepy eye situation going on at all times. He's got a broken finger or like toe pad.

He's about 20 pounds, but he's lost some weight since we gave him too much to eat at first. And he's a 13-year-old. uh orange cat about we don't know really the vet told me that big guy had a difficult childhood which was kind of a weird thing to hear about a cat but when we first got him he was real mean but it turns out he was just in a lot of pain he had all these dental issues he hadn't been fixed yet so he was a little bit smelly he was dirty from living outside and after we got all of his medical problems fixed and he got used to living inside, he became the cuddliest cat you'll ever meet. A cat who follows me around, sits on my lap, sits on my keyboard, sits on my

head when I'm trying to sleep. It's actually kind of annoying, but it's been so lovely to have big guy around. We got big guy at a memorial, actually. So he was my friend Shannon's grandmother's cat. And Nana was such a beautiful woman. I met her when I was in grad school. She was so fun, so full of life, always the life of the party. And I just love talking to her. And so when she passed, years later, I went to her memorial, and Shannon had these posters with a little photo of a little forlorn, giant-faced cat. And she told me that she needed a place for him because he has FIV, which is feline immunodeficiency virus. And so that means he can't live with other cats. He can't live with her cat.

And we had just lost our cat, Minky, who was kind of the opposite. from big guy, a very small, purebred demure cat. And by the end of the memorial, after talking for an evening about how great and loving Nana was, I just felt like, you know, we have an empty home. We should take her cat. She wanted someone to take care of him and we can do this. And I'd love to do this in memory of Nana. So we got him and we didn't really realize how kind of feral and Lucy was.

he was really nice to my friend. She had kind of wooed him, brought him inside, and did all this work to make him more cuddly, but, you know, the move and everything and us being new people, he wasn't into us at all. He really, really wasn't into us. And so it took a lot of time. He used to do this thing where he would kind of like attack my feet,

which I hated so much. So I was walking around with a towel at one point. Like I was like in a bull fighting ring trying to, you know, know, keep them distracted so we wouldn't go after my legs. And you cannot imagine the kind of change that has been visited upon this cat who had such a rough life who, as far as we know, always lived outside. Nana fed him, you know, in her backyard twice a day. He never came inside. And he managed to survive on the mean streets of Toronto for so long, all through the winter. It's kind of amazing to think about. And now he's here, coddled, getting a lot of veterinary care.

He's in good health now. And we want him to live out the rest of his days and kind of our lapse of luxury. He's kind of got a, we call it kind of a smokers per. He's just the sweetest cat. And to anybody who's thinking of adopting a cat, I think you should think about a senior cat, or even a cat who is not the friendliest at first, because once you earn their love, it just feels, it feels amazing. And it's so kind of touching to see how such a little being can learn after so long to love and to trust humans, even though, as far as we know, he'd never even been pet before. So I like to think that Nana is happy with where big guy is, knows that he's loved, knows that he's cared for.

And she made sure he was fed and happy all through those years when he was living his wildlife on the streets. And now he gets to be kind of a retired Tomcat in our house. Okay, let's go try to find him. Big guy. Big guy. that's me meowing not that's me oh you're on your heated blanket you don't care about me there you have it. That's big guy

that's big guy underwood Mahalovich Okay. Okay. So my husband and I adopted Orpheus in October. We think he's about a year and a half, but we're not too sure what his life was like before we got him. So that's kind of an estimate. Basically, what happened is we got word that there was this cat who needed some help in a housing complex, which is attached to tapestry opera and nightwood theater. in Toronto. I'm the Globe's Theater Reporter, so I spend a decent amount of time in that building already, and I was pretty intrigued. Just for background, I love cats. I had two cats already. Their names

are fake in June. So I was pretty on board already, but I definitely, of course, wanted to meet him before I agreed to anything. Of course, once I met Orpheus, I fell in love. He crawled right into my lap the second I went to say hi to him at the shelter that he'd been moved to. And within maybe five minutes, we were pretty sure he was going to come home to live with us. He's the best cat ever. I don't really know how else to put it. I like to call him the Phantom of Tapestry Opera because of where he came from. And also he's a black cat. So he's a very spooky guy. And I think that kind of suits him. We picked the name Orpheus because of his theatrical background. And, you know, I think that suits him as well. He's a pretty dramatic.

guy. He's very chatty. And if you think about the myth of Orpheus and Eurytasy as well, he's kind of an idiot in the way that you'd hope. We're pretty sure he would totally look behind him on his way out of hell to make sure that my husband and I were still there. He loves people so much. His sisters, they're not really on board yet. We're working on it. But he's been a great addition to our family. And I love that he's kind of a theater cat. So my dog, Nico, came into my life in the year 2020 during the pandemic when she was nine years old. She's 14 now, so I often say she's doing retirement with me. It was the height of pandemic.

I work in theater, which meant I was completely out of a job. And like everyone, I was alone in my house and, frankly, quite depressed. So I started to apply to adopt a dog, a very popular thing to do at that time. I sent in five separate applications to five different humane societies, never heard back from one, because everybody had the same idea as I did at this time. I mentioned that I was looking for a dog to a family friend who said, hey, would you like to take care of Nico for a couple of weeks? They were looking for a caregiver for their teeny tiny Pomeranian Nico.

She is under eight pounds. She has beautiful strawberry blonde hair, but mostly what she has is alopecia, which means she has a lot of bald spots, specifically her. her butt is entirely bald and quite leathery. And the rest of her hair kind of comes and goes. It's often stress-related, but sometimes it has to do with the weather. Sometimes it's hard to track why her hair comes and goes. But at the time that she came to my house, I remember she got out of the car and looked a bit

like a little rat. A lot of her was bald. She had a little rat tail. But these two beautiful weeks we spent together, I'm a musician, so I spend a lot of time of the piano every day, and Nico would start to sit on my lap and lean her head against my heart and fall asleep every day while I played. And slowly but surely, I started to notice that her bald spots were filling in. Her hair was starting to come back over these two weeks. I think perhaps all she needed was a depressed millennial to dote on her every second of every day. So

as the two weeks came to a close, these family friends said, it seems like maybe it's best for both you and Nico if she stays there. And they were right. They remain a very active part of her life, but Nico lives here now for her retirement years, and she fills every part of my life with light and laughter. She's funny and strange and specific. She has a beautiful bald, leathery ass, but the rest of her coat is very full these days, and my heart is full too.

And that's how Nico came into my life. That was Millie, Lucy, Sal, Olive, Jacko, big guy Underwood Mihalovic. Orpheus and Nico. That's it for today. I'm Cheryl Sutherland. Our producers are Madeline White, Mikhail Stein, and Ali Graham.

Our editor is David Crosby. Adrian Chung is our senior producer, and Angela Pichenza is our executive editor. Happy holidays, everyone, and thanks so much for listening. We're taking a break, and we'll be back next week. Thank you.