Yesterday at 9:00 PM • Modified yesterday at 9:37 PM
The body of Tony van den Bosch (35) from Oosterhout is nicely decorated with tattoos. His arms, chest and legs are full and yet the smallest tattoo is the most special for him. They are the ears of his deceased dog Didi. “She got me through the hard times.”
Tony didn’t have an easy childhood. As a child he was taken from his mother and his father was also not in his life. As a kind of turning point, he decided to donate a kidney around the age of twenty. “I wanted to do something good for someone else. I am also impulsive. So when I thought of it, I immediately started the process.”
Tony had to recover from the operation for a while and his friends, who bred dogs themselves, thought he could borrow a dog from them to spend time together. “I was given a loan dog and her name was Didi, but of course she couldn’t stay with me forever.”
Tony liked having such a four-legged friend so much that a while later he got another loaner dog. This dog eventually returned home and had puppies there. “I immediately went to check on the puppies.”
Tony immediately fell in love with one of the little Malinois. “I asked my landlord if I could have a dog. That was allowed!” Tony soon decided that he would name this puppy after his first loan dog Didi.
“Didi prevented me from feeling worse.”
Didi and Tony were inseparable from the first moment. “A few months after I took her, the landlord suddenly stopped letting me have a dog,” says Tony. “Then I left with Didi. We went to live somewhere else.”
The two moved into a house with more space. That is also necessary with a Malinois. “They are a very smart breed and they are very focused on their owner. Raising them went well and she learned very quickly.”
Not only Didi learned from her owner, but also the other way around. Tony was not always feeling well. “Didi prevented me from feeling even worse. I had to get out of bed on time and I had a responsibility. I had to go outside for her and that just works very well. You come into contact with people again, the sun shines and your dog makes you happy.”
“I had five days to say goodbye.”
When Didi was nine, she developed a tumor in her abdomen. It soon became clear that there was no point in operating anymore. “I had five days to say goodbye. So I spent five days with her and didn’t go to work,” Tony says.
Tony wanted to have an eternal memory of his special dog. There was already one on one arm sleeve and flames on his other forearm. “And I have a guitar on my chest and I also have some tattoos on my legs, including a few that I did myself.”
So a tattoo was nothing new for Tony, but none actually had any meaning. Until now. “I wanted a tattoo of her before she was put to sleep. Actually, this tattoo was just as impulsive as the kidney, but this has become my most special tattoo.”
Tony is now doing well. Despite a difficult start, he has always worked hard for his future, which has given him a good place for himself. Didi passed away a few years ago and he now has two other dogs that he loves very much. “But I will never forget Didi.”
Here you can read all the stories in the My tattoo section and its story.
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