The Chamber Choir Ireland CEO on her rescue dog Sadie, who doesn’t like to be left on her own but has become a sort of therapy dog at the National Concert Hall
Majella Hollywood and her rescue dog Sadie
Sadie had only two weeks before she was put down when I rescued her in February 2023. I’d done some fostering before for Dogs in Distress and when I saw Sadie go up online, I decided to help her. She needed a good bit of TLC, naturally, but she was very quiet and gentle.
There was a nervousness about her, but she settled fairly quickly and when I was asked to send on some photos of her because someone was interested in actually adopting her, I said no, because I already knew I wanted to keep her myself.
She’s six or seven years old now and she’s a Labrador cross. Crossed with what? Well, that’s hard to tell, but she’s a bit smaller than a regular Labrador, and she has very interesting – and expressive – ears!
I grew up with Labradors; Goldie arrived when I was about three, and I was 17 or 18 when she died. Then my brother had a black Labrador called Bruno. He was a very attentive dog, and was brilliant with my mum who was a stroke patient at the time; Bruno always had a really lovely presence around her.
Majella Hollywood, CEO Chamber Choir Ireland, with her rescue dog Sadie. Photo: Steve Humphreys
Sadie is also a calm dog, but when she arrived three years ago her separation anxiety issues meant that if I left her alone for even a short time, the kitchen bin would be emptied and there’d be rubbish all over the place. There’s none of that any more; when I leave her now she knows that I’m coming back.
She’s still not keen being parted from me, though. If I have to pop out for milk, say I can’t bring Sadie with me, left on her own for those few minutes she’d be jumping all over the car, turning on lights and hitting all kinds of switches until I was back again!
Sadie helps me to live a better life. Walking her in the morning and again in the evening time adds punctuation to the day. Those walks clear my head before my working schedule begins and then, no matter what kind of day I’ve had, there’s always that evening walk to look forward to.
She has her own bed in my bedroom, and although she always starts off up on my bed, when I turn out the light she jumps down and gets into her own. At weekends, if I sleep a bit longer, she’ll leap up and potter along to the top of the bed to see what on earth’s going on – am I awake or not?
My Chamber Choir office is in the National Concert Hall and when I go in two days every week, Sadie comes too. It’s so lovely having her there – curled up in her bed in my office. Mind you, she’s not the only dog in the building. The Concert Hall staff just love Sadie – and she loves them. Really, she’s like a therapy dog.
Chamber Choir Ireland’s nationwide concert tour, ‘Servant of Servants, Patron of the Arts’, begins on May 1, see chamberchoirireland.com
As told to Roslyn Dee
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