Entrant's First Name
Sofia

Animal Bio
Giles is a 2004 model! He was found at the Shelley dump just outside of Prince George with his sister and taken to the Prince George SPCA. He was four months old. The day I went to adopt him he had just been shipped to Quesnel. I jumped in a truck and drove the hour and a half to adopt my boy. He is the smartest dog I have ever had, and well, the hair! Gotta love the hair. Giles gets the best bed head you could imagine. In his youthful days he spent countless hours hiking and cross-country skiing and even skating on beaver ponds! When he was seven a human baby came into his home. At first he wasn’t so sure about this new addition, but he came around. We lived in a small village of about 1000 people. When my daughter was about two years old I had to take her to the health centre for an illness. Giles jumped in the truck and came with us. When it became obvious we would be at the health centre for a while I called a friend to come and pick Giles up and take him home because it was warming up outside and I was worried about the truck getting too warm. My friend dropped Giles at my yard through the back gate not knowing the front gate was open. Giles was never a dog to wander away. His family pack was always his priority and he stayed near. This time however, Giles knew something was wrong with his kid. He set out to find her. When we were released from health centre I arrived home and Giles was gone. I could not leave the house as my daughter was still very ill and I was raising her alone. I posted on the local Facebook page and received sightings. Giles went everywhere we had been in the past twenty-four hours. His first stop was the daycare, then the village playground, followed by the grocery store and his final stop was the emergency room door at the health centre where he waited. After reading Giles’ tag a nurse called me and told me this dog has been outside the door for hours waiting. I explained who I was and that we had spent half the day at the ER. She remembered us and offered to deliver Giles home at the end of her shift. When Giles arrived home he bolted to his kid’s bedroom. The door was almost completely closed. He laid outside the door until I came and opened it. He immediately moved beside my daughter’s bed where he stayed for hours. Now, another seven years later, it is his mission everyday to take his kid to school and pick her up. Giles has been the most ‘bomb-proof’, gentle, kid-dog my daughter could have ever had. The influence he has had on my daughter and myself will be ever-lasting. At fourteen years young, this old man is still trucking along. It takes a little longer to get up and get all the creaks out, walks are shorter, but as long as his pack is good, he is good. We love our Old Man, he is our Watcher.

(Giles was named after the character Rupert Giles on Buffy the Vampire Slayer. He was the slayer’s Watcher who trained her and kept her safe. At four months of age, when I named him, I had no idea how appropriate Giles’ name would become.)

Giles does have his tags on in this picture, but his hair is covering them.