When a small dog’s Burberry jacket was donated to the Capital Regional District animal shelter where she works, Deb Barry washed it and waited. What were the chances that within weeks, a petite pooch named Burberry would come along in need of a home? Exactly. She had to adopt it.
“When all the signs come to you, you can’t ignore it,” said Barry. “As we get older, we learn to trust our intuition more and I’ll tell you, when I found out her name was Burberry, I was trusting this one.”
The match made in heaven began when a small mixed-breed dog was found Dec. 23 wearing a collar and dragging a leash on McKenzie Avenue near Braefoot Road in Saanich.
Initially worried for the owner’s safety, Don Brown, the Capital Regional District’s chief bylaw officer, put out a public appeal. The dog, who was at least 15 years old, resembled a toy poodle and weighed about eight pounds, looked unkempt and in need of medical attention.
Barry, who has worked at the shelter since 2013, didn’t have the heart to leave the dog alone in the shelter over Christmas, so she wrapped her in the designer dog coat and volunteered to take her home. Barry named the dog Maria, after an elderly aunt with a similar hairstyle and happy disposition.
She initiated plans to have a rescue organization oversee moving the dog to a foster home.
Over the holidays, she washed and pampered Maria, took her to the vet — who, among other things, prescribed eye drops that reduced the swelling in the dog’s once-bulging eyes — and cared for her like her own. Barry found the dog was well trained and her modus operandi was to cuddle as much as possible.
After the holidays, the dog’s caregiver was found and told the CRD that the owner remains in Hong Kong due to the pandemic, with no set return date. The owner agreed it was in the dog’s interest that the animal be adopted by a caring owner “for the remainder of her days,” Brown said.
Despite how attached Barry had become, she was fully prepared to pass the dog on to a rescue organization and foster family. And then she was told the dog’s real name: “Burberry.”
You may call that a coincidence, but Barry calls it fate.
The fact a small dog came to the shelter in need of the puppy-size Burberry jacket Barry had washed and set aside on the off chance it would be needed was fortuitous. But when the dog’s actual name was Burberry: “OK, really, I thought this is meant to be,” said Barry. “I had a premonition she was coming into my life.”
Once Barry called the dog by its given name, Burberry responded with the happiness of someone returning home.
“She knows her name,” Barry said. “We started calling her that and she clearly responds to that.”
Burberry is now on a prescribed hypo-allergenic diet and has a dental appointment March 11 to fix her teeth.
The owner, said Brown, has paid for the initial vet check-up, while Barry has paid for subsequent vet visits and medication. She hopes to get donations to help pay for the $3,000 dental surgery and other urgent medical procedures.
Meilin Li of Saanich who works for Pemberton Holmes Ltd., contacted Brown about donating to the dog’s care after reading about it in the newspaper.
She has set up a Go Fund Me page (gf.me/u/zd8ijd) to collect contributions towards Burberry’s immediate surgery and vet bills.
So far, it has raised $650 toward a goal of $3,500.
