Opinion Express View: Dog and man

When Jean-Paul Sartre said “hell is other people”, he should perhaps have added a caveat. There is indeed no torture like a relationship soured, or having to endure the company of someone you truly detest. But, on the other hand, there is no tribulation greater than enforced solitude, no punishment greater than solitary confinement. The very depths of despair, then, may not be a result of the people we hate but rather, loneliness. And, as the tale of Timothy Shaddock shows, the best way to survive that hell — and many a trauma — might be with the help of a dog.

Shaddock was rescued last week by a fishing boat in the Pacific Ocean. He had set sail from Mexico for French Polynesia on a catamaran, which got damaged. Stranded at sea for three months, he survived by eating raw tuna and drinking rainwater. Despite his troubles, though, the gaunt and bearded Australian did not seem to carry the weight of his ordeal as he gave interviews. Perhaps that’s because, unlike Tom Hanks’ character in Cast Away (2000), his companion wasn’t an imaginary man named Wilson but a real canine named Bella.

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Bella adopted Shaddock in Mexico — she was a stray who refused to leave his side. On a boat, with nothing but undrinkable water around and the unforgiving sun above, the unconditional companionship and friendship that Bella gave must have made the ordeal just a little more bearable. Imagine if, instead, he was stuck with someone he hated, someone who began competing for limited resources. Or, as many a thriller film has shown, someone who sees survival as a zero-sum game. In that case, the catamaran would indeed have become hell. Luckily, though, Bella is likely a better person than most people.