Shared struggles, shared strength: Stitch’s story of healing, love, and resilience
The powerful bond between humans and animals goes far beyond companionship – it’s a relationship built on empathy, healing, and shared resilience. This story of Stitch and her family beautifully captures how love, care, and understanding flow both ways – how they help each other through life’s toughest moments, finding strength and comfort in their unbreakable bond.
Their story demonstrates how people and animals can experience remarkably similar health challenges too. Stitch has faced conditions that many humans also endure — from diabetes to joint and spinal conditions, while family members navigate neurodiversity and dementia, which animals can also experience. Just as we care for our beloved companions through illness and recovery, they, too, nurture us with unconditional love and comfort when we need it most.
Finding comfort in each other
“When Stitch joined our family, my youngest son was just nine years old and already feeling anxious and struggling with school,” Clare explains. “Stitch would curl up beside him when he was sad, offering quiet comfort in a way that words never could. He often shut himself
away in his room, but knowing Stitch needed her daily walks encouraged him to leave the house with us, which became so important for both our mental health and wellbeing. It was lovely to watch them run across the field together. Stitch would chase after him and they’d both have smiles on their faces – all his worries would disappear in just those little moments. A few years later, when my son was diagnosed with Autism, we finally understood more about how he experiences the world – physically, mentally, and emotionally – and how much Stitch had helped him navigate those early struggles.”
Bringing light to dementia’s darkness
“Around the same time, my gran was in the late stages of dementia. It was heartbreaking that she no longer recognised me, but every visit with Stitch brought a spark of joy to her. When I placed Stitch in her lap her eyes would light up. She loved the attention and smiled at Stitch’s constant licking – she seemed to enjoy the taste of my gran’s hand and face cream! These moments brought a lot of happiness and connection into my gran’s empty days, even if she forgot who I was minutes later. Stitch has so much love to give and this is what makes her so special to me and all of our family.”
Stitch’s journey through pain and recovery
Stitch’s own health struggles began when she was still young. Clare said: “On walks, she started sitting down and refusing to move. A scan revealed severe bilateral patellar luxation, rubbing bone on bone. The only option was total knee replacements, but standard implants weren’t suitable. Our last hope was a referral to Fitzpatrick Referrals, where she underwent two major surgeries to have custom-made implants fitted.
Then during a follow-up review, the team spotted a large mass on her abdomen. Over Christmas, Stitch had been unwell, sleeping a lot, vomiting, and refusing food, but we thought it was just something she ate. The scan showed it wasn’t. The team spotted a large mass on her abdomen and she needed urgent spleen removal. We were so relieved when the mass turned out to be benign.
Facing new challenges with courage
Unfortunately Stitch’s health problems didn’t stop there. “A few years later, she was struggling to walk again and began yelping whenever we picked her up. Tests showed she had degenerative lumbosacral disease, a painful spinal condition that required lower back surgery and another custom implant to help ease her pain. Despite everything she had been through, her bravery never faltered.
Then, as if our little girl hadn’t been through enough, in May we noticed more changes. Stitch was drinking excessively, losing weight, and urinating during her sleep. Tests confirmed diabetes. The following day she went off her food and with no insulin, this quickly turned into her a hospital visit, where she stayed on a drip for five days due to an infection. It was so scary, we thought we were going to lose her. We were told her diagnosis would change all of our lives, as we needed to keep to a strict routine and inject every twelve hours. It was a lot of information to take in and I just burst into tears.
The hardest part is not being able to give her treats anymore. She still sits beside us when we have a cup of tea, looking for the biscuits we used to share, not understanding why everything has changed. We had to switch to a low-fat diet and weigh her food to the gram, feeding her at exactly 6:30am and 6:30pm each day. We buy bottles of insulin, needles and libre sensors which we use to monitor her glucose levels daily. Six months on, we’re still trying to stabilise her condition. We look to social media groups for guidance, as it feels like there isn’t a lot of information about diabetes in dogs, despite it being a very common condition.
The journey hasn’t been easy, far from it, but it’s shown me that love truly works both ways. Stitch has supported our family through some of our hardest days, and in return, we’ll never stop fighting for her.
Just like for her Disney namesake Stitch, Ohana means family and family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten.”
Shared struggles, shared strength
Stitch’s story reminds us how closely our lives and challenges can mirror those of our companion animals. The bond between humans and animals is a two-way street: we heal each other, comfort each other, and give one another reason to keep going in the face of health difficulties.
Through One Medicine we can also make healthcare a two-way street. If doctors, vets and researchers work together and share knowledge and research about shared conditions, then breakthroughs will come sooner, and treatments will be made available sooner, bringing relief and ending suffering sooner, for ALL patients, human and animal.
If you’ve ever shared your life with an animal who’s helped you through tough times, or you’ve faced health challenges with side by side, we’d love to hear your story too.
