S Poddar
Lily Allen has been in the news for returning her adopted dog to the animal shelter after it created mayhem, eating up the passports belonging to her children. The singer disclosed the event on the “Miss Me?” podcast as she opened up about how the dog was turning her life upside down.
Speaking to Steve Jones, standing in for her regular co-host Miquita Oliver, Allen revealed that the little pet’s penchant for chewing had some major implications. “We actually did adopt a dog already, but then it ate my passport, so I took her back to the home,” Allen said. The dog did not stop at one passport but gobbled all three with their attached visas.
Although Allen didn’t name which of her dogs did the deed, reports from the Daily Mail identified the culprit as Mary, a puppy Allen had adopted from a New York City charity in 2021. Mary had an Insta page of her own, although that went silent just a couple of weeks after it was created—maybe another hint at the troubled relationship.
The ordeal left Allen stranded in New York with her kids, unable to travel to England to visit their father, Sam Cooper. With the Covid restrictions, losing the passports turned into a logistical nightmare. “And because the father of my children lives in England, I couldn’t take them back to see their dad for like four months, five months, because this f***ing dog had eaten the passports,” she recalled. It really did affect her on a deep level. She held so much grudge against the dog. “I just couldn’t look at her. I was like, you’ve ruined my life,” Allen admitted.
But the misadventure with the passports wasn’t the only reason behind returning her. Allen went on to explain that the behavior of the dog was a problem since the beginning. “Passports weren’t the only thing she ate; she was just a very badly behaved dog. And I really did try very hard with her, but it just didn’t work out. The passports were sort of the straw that broke the camel’s back,” she confessed.
The decision that Allen has made to return the dog, after all her efforts to make it work, is a gentle reminder that there are problems owners may have when adopting pets with behavioral issues. The experience of the singer is one of those that reminds everyone that, at times, not every adoption works according to plan, even with good intentions.
The shelter from which Allen took Mary home, Animal Haven, actually has a pretty good reputation when it comes to rehoming animals. It’s actually the same shelter where talk show host Jon Stewart adopted his family dog. Stewart had shared a far more positive experience with the shelter, noting that his children even raised money for the charity through a bake sale before adopting their beloved pet, who sadly passed away earlier this year.
Allen’s openness about her experience with the adopted dog rang a lot of dog owners true. It is never easy to give back a pet, but sometimes it’s the right decision both for the animal and the family. In the case of Allen, obviously, the option to return a dog wasn’t an easy call to make, but was quite necessary under those circumstances.
As she moves on, Allen turns her focus back toward family and career; this experience has taught her a lesson about the unpredictability involved with owning a pet.
