A work of a year and a half. Almost therapy. “The beginning of the writing was very hard. I cried a lot, because I started with the end, to then recount memories that were much more pleasant to me. “His book entitled” Joé “was released in the spring of 2021 “and I thought that this story could be of interest”, would almost apologize the author, who does not define herself as such.
This book, from which she undertakes to donate “all the profits” to animal cause associations, and in particular the Gray SPA (Society for the Protection of Animals), where she is a volunteer, has both an intimate and another unifier. In this love with her dog, which she recounts in the “very good times as well as the more difficult ones”, many will no doubt be able to relate to it. Except that Joé’s story has many unique characteristics. “I adopted him on October 6, 2008, at the SPA in Besançon, after coming to see him a few times because he was injured after being attacked by a Golden. “One of the many misadventures of a dog promised, at that time, “to euthanasia in Cologne, Germany. »
In 2008, “people from the Besançon SPA explained to me that twelve dogs had been taken in, following a truck breakdown. “Because like other congeners, Joé came from an association of Toulon, “which had received too many dogs”, explains Clémence. This one will be saved, when he was only four years old.
We were always together, I took her everywhere…
Three years later, during a visit to a veterinarian, his mistress learned that he had leishmaniasis. A disease, typical of the south of France, often caused by a mosquito bite, particularly paralyzing or even fatal for dogs.
Pampered, Joé will receive an iron treatment. Years of unfailing complicity will follow. “I saw how much he had been marked by his abandonment. We were always together, I took her everywhere, ”revisited Clémence. Another veterinary examination, in 2016, the scotcha. “Joé had fallen back on his spine, because his friend Labrador, with joy, had rushed at him. X-ray shows he had two pellets in one leg. And even a third, found later, in the last moments of the animal’s life. “The vet had been formal. It wasn’t about stray bullets. That’s when I understood why he was so scared when out walking during hunting season. »
It is by dint of telling these stories and anecdotes that those close to Clémence convince her to write. In this tribute to his dog, readers will experience these last, trying moments of the summer of 2019. “He had a bit of everything, including a small stroke. Leishmaniasis had weakened his kidneys, his liver was affected. It was when I saw that he could no longer eat and that he began to moan that I made the decision to end his suffering. Clémence Schilder, “a tribute to my maternal grandmother”, also evokes, more or less directly, the memory of Joé in another “more engaged” work. “Nostalgia. The evils of life » was released in November 2021.
Joe on sale (€21) on online platforms, as well as at Mag Presse Intermarché in Gray and at the Techni Croc store in Arc-lès-Gray.
