ALL DONATIONS ON MY PAGE THIS WEEK WILL BE USED TO HELP HOMELESS PEOPLE'S DOGS
My heart is absolutely broken as I write this. My gorgeous dog Rascal passed away in the early hours of Monday morning. He was sleeping with my partner Leo in our bed with our other two dogs. If there was ever a perfect way to go, then that was it.
The last 48 hours have been a bit of a rollercoaster since Leo called me to let me know Rascal had passed. I was in Madrid for work but fortunately was coming home that same evening. My first reaction was guilt. I felt dreadful that I wasn't there when it happened but then immediately after I was so grateful that it happened in our home with our family.
If I am being honest, I had a feeling when I left on Thursday to go to Glasgow to perform that I may not see him again. The days before I left he had started to make a sudden decline in his health - his legs were weak, he wasn't eating and he didn't want to be alone. The day before (Wednesday) I had a ton of things to do around Barcelona that day but I cancelled them all to sit on the sofa with the dog all day. And that is what we did.
It reminded me of when he was a puppy. He needed helped on and off the sofa and he mostly slept until I tried to move and then he darted up to see why I was going somewhere without him. Deep down I knew in that moment that this was probably going to be it.
I got Rascal in 2015 during the height of the messiest time of my life. I found him in a little box in between two bins in Gracia. I felt like all my prayers had been answered. I always wanted a Jack Russell and I always said I would call him Rascal. He was almost 6 weeks old at the time and I had to bottle feed him every few hours for days on end initially to get him back to health.
A year after I got him, I was living on the streets in Barcelona. Initially I had gone to a homeless shelter and they told me to get in I had to lose the dog. I told the woman "He is all I have left. We'll be fine." and off I went. Shortly after that I met Holly, a Canadian girl who had been living on the streets about 3 years by that point, and her dog Gary. We would become fast friends and she and Gary taught me and Rascal how to survive.
While I was homeless I used to feel like I was the worst dog dad of all time but I wasn't sure I could live without him. I used to fantasise running up to a stranger who looked like they could take better care of him, hand him to them and then run away. I am so glad I didn't.
I found myself living with Julie - my new friend who I met while I was homeless - and her dog Inca. Rascal and Inca became a solid pair of friends and walking them around the park together was one of the highlights of a time in my life that was still pretty crappy - I was still using drugs and drinking and was massively depressed. Rascal loved being in amongst other dogs so having Inca on tap to play with was a doggy dream come true.
I got sober in 2017. Rascal lapped up the attention he got in sober circles and to be honest I think I only got invited to places so I could bring him along. "Rascal you are invited to a BBQ this Saturday. You may bring your human."
I was renting rooms in flatshares for a time while I got back on my feet. Wherever we lived Rascal became adopted by the others in the house and when we moved out the people left behind suddenly went and got a dog of their own. He was a charmer! I got an apartment of my own in 2019 and he had all the space he could ask for. It was just us two against the world - and whatever Colombian I happened to be dating at the time - IYKYK :p
He got me through a pandemic, working from home, a change into comedy and eventually in January 2024 we left that flat so I could save money to be a comic. We lived with a friend who had a cat and of course they became best friends.
And then came Leo. Love of my life and Rascal's new dad. I had boyfriends on and off over the years and Rascal never quite let them near me. If I am totally honest he was always right about them - they just weren't right for me! But when I met Leo in April 2024, Rascal instantly allowed him into our world. Leo loved Rascal like he was his own and I was happy for Rascal to sometimes (only sometimes) prefer him.
We moved in together in June 2025 and that was great for Rascal as he could stay home with Leo while I went on tour. Previously he had gone to different friends and dog sitters houses and that sometimes left him a little unsettled especially as he was getting older and set in his ways.
Later that year we were blessed to be joined by our two other dogs Lezzy and Lejcro. Leo was worried that Rascal wouldn't want other dogs in his home but I knew that Rascal loves nothing more than being in a gang and he immediately let them in, on the condition that he was the alpha of course.
He had a whole year of having a pack at home while I was away on and off. The guilt I felt for leaving him so much was always relieved by the fact that I knew he was so happy at home with Leo and the others. He was truly loved.
They say dogs are like their owners. And this owner hopes he is half the person his dog was. We will miss you Rascal.
Iain x