My name is: Chase Frappé
I came from: Cyprus
Now I live in: London
My favourite things are: Being a goofball, sleeping, food, fetching, foxes, pigeons and squirrels
Follow me on Instagram: @chase_the_underdog

Chase’s story

My partner and I spent a year trying to adopt a dog, but to no avail… until we were introduced to Underdog International by a friend. We immediately visited their website and sat beside each other and scrolled through the beautiful dogs up for adoption. Within a minute of looking, there he was, our Chasey boy. My partner said “Let's keep looking before we choose”. We went through every single dog available and simply looked back at each other and knew we wanted Chase. When our adoption went through, lord were we over the moon but simultaneously in disbelief. We’d wanted a dog for so long!

The hard part came next, two weeks after applying to adopt Chase lockdown happened in the UK. We were informed that Chase’s arrival was unknown. Two months later the amazing team at Underdog finally got back to us, letting us know our boy would arrive in a week! He flew to Belgium, then travelled by pet courier for another six hours to our front door. 

Our boy had arrived! He took the longest pee when he got out of the van. We lead him inside and he immediately began to sniff everything. Just touching his dry fur and seeing him in person made us deliriously happy. He was home, and it was all because of the amazing Underdog team that rescued him and kept him safe for us. 

Chase was described as a goofball and boy does he live up to it! My partner and I both have had dogs growing up, but we’d never had a rescue. What shocked us the most about Chase, was the fact that he didn’t know how to be a dog. He didn’t know that it was okay to be in a house, to sit on the sofa, what a ball was or his name. But we knew he was a gentle boy ready to give us all of his love.

When we first got him there was a strange feeling of trust, almost like we knew he would always come back to us, so we starting practising off-lead recall early on. His cheeky face looked up at us, then he bolted and started his zoomies all around us, and when he went too far, we shouted his name and he ran straight back. In that moment we realised he was our boy and we were his hoo-peeps!

Within three days we taught him to sit. Three weeks to paw. Three months to lay down (he was really stubborn with this one). Four months to jump, stay and fetch. Whoever said you can’t teach an old dog new tricks lied! He is such an amazing boy and really knows how to beg everyone for treats now! It’s astounding what a little patience and love can do for a rescue dog. We joke that he’s our farm dog living in the city!

It’s been over a year since he arrived home and we will cherish every morning he jumps into bed for a little cuddle, every road trip we take with him, all the times he rolls in the biggest pile of poop, every meal he tries to steal from the table and every howl he makes at the TV. We are forever proud to say we have an Underdog and extremely grateful to all the people who helped get Chase to us!

- Abi & Nick