Being an ambassador for an animal rescue home can be a risky business. Ask top-selling children’s author Dame Jacqueline Wilson. Up until seven years ago she had lived a pet-free life. Then in quick succession she found herself the owner of two kittens and a puppy, all from Battersea Dogs & Cats Home. Jacob, a grey and white cat, arrived first, seven years ago, followed by Lily, also grey and white, and then Jackson, a black terrier.
Dame Jacqueline, who is 71 today, admits that her pets chose her as much as she did them. “It was love at first sight each time. You go to Battersea and there are all these dogs and cats and then suddenly there’s the one for you, it’s like meeting someone’s eyes across a room,” she said. “With Lily, I was at the home in my role as an ambassador and I was looking at all the kittens. I was wearing a grey coat and I picked up Lily to give her a cuddle. She started kneading my coat as if to say, look, we’re wearing matching colours so that means you’re my mum, please take me home with you.”
It was a similar story with Jackson. “I was visiting the home one day, but had not intended to come back with a dog at all. I’d thought in the past that if I did ever get a dog it would be a lady and definitely not a terrier, because they’re too bouncy. What did I come home with? A boy terrier. He was sitting there looking up at me, so weeny and black, I just knew that I had to have him.”
For Dame Jacqueline, it felt right that her pets should come from a rescue home.
“My books are about children who don’t have loving family homes or are in an institution, like Tracy Beaker and Hetty Feather, and these animals also don’t have a loving family home through no fault of their own, so it made sense to me to offer them one.”
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Lily died two years ago, when she was two.
“We live in a dead-end road, but the one time a car went past Lily dashed out into the road and that was that. It broke my heart.”
It also affected Jacob, she adds. “He was very timid and spent the first week hiding under my bed. What helped him was when I got Lily. I introduced them very carefully and Lily immediately fell in love with Jacob. She followed him everywhere and while he merely tolerated her, it did boost his confidence that she copied everything he did. When Lily first died Jacob would sit on the window ledge looking out as if waiting for her to come back.”
When she acquired Jackson she carefully introduced the boisterous puppy to Jacob. “Jacob looked at me indignantly as if to say, what’s this you’ve brought into the house? Jackson tried to play, but Jacob wasn’t having any of it, and stalked majestically away.”
She says her life has been enriched by her pets. “Just hearing a cat purring and stroking its fur is very relaxing. When I return after a short trip to the shops and Jackson comes running up, his tail wagging hard and so happy to see me, it’s total joy.”
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She has always included pets in her books “because all children love them” and if they do not own a pet they like to read about other people’s animals.
“I wrote a story about a girl who cut out a picture of a cat owned by a writer who looked very like me, and pretended it was hers. I then had lots of letters from children who told me that they already did that: cut out pictures of my pets and pretended that they were theirs,” she says.
Dame Jacqueline says Battersea is surprising. “People always think Battersea must be a sad place, but every time I go I meet ecstatic families who have found the pet they want and are going out with a dog on a lead or a cat in a basket. For every sad story there’s a happy one too.”
She says that Battersea is careful to manage potential rescue pet owners’ expectations. “It’s like fostering children. You can’t expect them to come into your home and exclaim, ‘Oh, how lovely,’ and behave perfectly from the start. That’s just not the case.”
Now that Dame Jacqueline has been bitten by the pet bug, she cannot rule out any further additions, admitting: “If we ever talk again you may find that I’ve acquired another pet.”