Britney Spears - How Healing Takes Time

An unlikely journey to happiness

Every dog I come across on this mission teaches me something and with Britney Spears the lessons apply to us all.

She is the one dog I never thought I could truly fix. The one who for years I had no real plan for, a seriously troubled girl who deep down I thought would be with us at Happy Doggo forever.

It took 3 years and a lot of pain, stress and patience but in the end Britney blossomed into the beautiful dog she was destined to be before nasty humans got to her.

Britney Was An Incredibly Troubled Dog

A local lady called Teri spotted Britney and called me about her. Britney had just bitten her. She had been dumped in the jungle with her 5 young puppies and a padlock around her neck. I’ve never seen a dog as dejected, broken or as angry…

• She bit several humans who tried to approach her (including Rod in photo below)

• Attacked pretty much every dog she came into contact with

• It took me a week to catch her in the jungle such was her ferocity

• She would launch herself in flying bites with teeth showing at all humans

• Kept knocking my own dog Snoop over who was old and frail

We’ll never fully know how she ended up this angry and aggressive but I am 100% sure it was down to humans not being kind to her and then discarding her.

Progress was painfully slow in the early days. I don’t mind saying that I was very close to giving up on her. Just being in my small house was a fraught and dangerous experience.

In the end it took 3 full years but…

• All her puppies (below) were fixed up medically (those were ticks in their ears) and adopted

• I had to steer her clear of all dogs and people for a full year. There were several incidents a day

• Britney came to live at Happy Doggo land and very slowly decompress over years

• Eventually over 20 people helped her become the dog she is by being patient with her

• Although she only ever had one serious suitable adoption application it was the one that was the perfect home for her with a man called Sam in Scotland.

• Her lovely new owner came to visit her in Thailand and she loved him instantly

• She set off to travel 6000 Miles from Thailand to Scotland last week

The Perfect Photos Do Exist…

If you saw the photos below in isolation you’d just think it was another dog. For me and many people who have followed Britney from the start though they are photos that are scarcely believable.

Britney being picked up at the airport in Scotland and staring out the window in amazement as she heads home. Then Brits sleeping off her jet lag on her very own couch. In her forever home!!!

She is a completely different girl now. 3 years is a huge amount of time in dog years and it took every single day of that time to get her to this place in life but she did it.

Britney’s Journey Reminds Me Of My Own

I vividly remember being an alcoholic and suffering from depression and crippling panic attacks. I must have tried 1000 times to give up the booze and Valium.

It took me from the years of 16 to 41 to get sober. Thats a quarter of a century of suffering. Probably a similar percentage of my own life as Brits had tough times.

The lesson is that not everything is fixable overnight for dogs or people. Sometimes the damage done and the psychological baggage we cary can take years to lift. I know personally I thought it might never happen for me. I’m sure Britney felt the same before she knew love and finally accepted it.

If you are one of the people out there who struggle in life just understand that not everything is fixed with a dry January, A TikTok inspired diet or a wellness retreat. In a world where we all look for quick answers or immediate trends to fix our problems sometimes the only thing that truly works is time.

I remember being totally broken in the ICU photo below 4.5 years ago. I hated my life, I saw very little reason to go on and I was at rock bottom just like Britney. To hold her while she was patted at her going away party, smiling with people around her feeling nothing but love proved to us both that with time anything is possible in life.

I know many people follow me who struggle in their own lives. Perhaps in small ways or with big life defining issues like myself and Britney. I think what both our stories show is that healing and finding solutions takes time. In Britney’s case 3 years and in mine 25 years.

You might have a bad medical diagnosis or be suffering from grief. You could have addiction issues or be in an abusive relationship. You might just be stuck in a rut at work and feel at a dead end in life. The one thing I’ve learnt from dogs and from Britney in particular is that there is one thing that nearly always works…time. Time can change so much.

I know so many people including friends and family who have found themselves in dark or troubled places in their lives only to bounce back stronger. When we are in those dark or troubled moments it can often feel like there is no way out. We think the dark cloud might never lift or that the answer is at the bottom of the next bottle of wine. That things with someone will be better “this time”.

As someone who has been in the gutter I can tell you that things can and will get better. Just stick with it and grind it out if you have to. Better days are coming.

To see Britney Spears laying on a couch in Scotland is all the proof we need that anything is possible in life. Her life hasn’t been perfect but she finally got the lucky break she always deserved. She really had to work for it but love won out.

Have a lovely week wherever you are in the world and be kind to others but also to yourself!

Big Love

Niall

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