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Rescue Rosie turns rescuer
A nurse who battled Covid-19 says her loyal rescue cockapoo nudged her back to health.
Michele Ibbs, then 57, from Wolverhampton, West Midlands, credits 12-yearold Rosie for getting her through.
Michele had returned to nursing as an RGN at the onset of the pandemic.
She was incapacitated for a week and spent 90 per cent of her time sleeping with Rosie at her side.
She said: “She never left me, she was willing me on. If it wasn’t for her I don’t know what I would have done.
“I had to get up to let her out and to feed her, so that kept me going, it gave me a reason to look after me as well, every time Rosie ate or went out, I would make myself eat and I got stronger bit by bit.
“She’d give me a little nudge and never took her eyes off me.”
Michele rescued Rosie eight years ago when she was four.
Rosie was believed to be a former puppy farm breeding bitch who had been kept in a cage.
She was so terrified she would cower in the corner, wouldn’t go out for a walk and flinched every time she saw a walking stick or carrier bag.
But day by day for three months, Michele lovingly nursed her back to health and now the pair go together to a local hospice and old people’s homes each Christmas to bring cheer to the patients and residents.
Michele was aiming to start the process of registering Rosie as a therapy dog before the pandemic hit.
Now she’s thanking Rosie for her help in her own recovery. And she’s been joined by a sister for Rosie (Looby Loo, another rescue).
