A Dachshund puppy or young adult with golden brown and darker markings, standing outdoors. The setting is a backyard garden during spring or summer, with green grass and blooming plants in the background. 3:31
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A dachshund puppy showed Sophie she had to eat

In her last year at university, Sophie Hewlett slowly got sick. Stress over her studies and some bullying wore on her, and the weight started coming off. more

It didn't feel like a problem at the time. When family and friends said she had lost weight, she saw it as a “mini victory.” She took control of her eating, she says, because everything else in her life felt out of control.

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Sophie looks back on how her eating disorder took hold in her last year at university.

Then she got a puppy, a miniature dachshund named Eevee, who “kind of chose me,” Sophie says. Within a couple of days, Eevee was very ill. She was badly dehydrated, and the vet found a parasite that left her unable to fight infections.

To keep Eevee alive, Sophie had to feed her with a syringe every 20 minutes. So she did, one small meal after another, with her eye always on the clock.

Somewhere in all those feedings, a light went on. Here she was, making sure a tiny dog ate on schedule, while letting her own meals go. She saw how bad her eating disorder had become, and she was tired of living that way. “Now I’ve helped Eevee, I need to help myself,” she says.

A Dachshund puppy or young adult with golden brown and darker markings, standing outdoors. The setting is a backyard garden during spring or summer, with green grass and blooming plants in the background. The headline runs in white letters across the lower third.Save
In her last year at university, Sophie Hewlett slowly got sick.

Getting well took time. Even throwing a ball for Eevee in the garden wore her out, and she wanted more than that. She wanted to take this dog for walks, along a country road and up the Malvern Hills.

The first time she took Eevee up the Malvern Hills, watching her bound around made Sophie so happy. “She’s my healing dog,” she says. Her mom used to bring Eevee to the hospital to visit, and as Sophie grew stronger, she watched the puppy grow too.

These days you can find the two of them in the back garden. Eevee lies flat in the grass with a chew toy and a blue ball, and Sophie is down in the grass beside her, nearly cheek to cheek, smiling.

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