A Massachusetts man has made a heartfelt plea to find a new home for his elderly dog after being given only six months to live. David Fine, from Plainville, was diagnosed with stage four lung cancer last August. Faced with this grim prognosis, Fine’s priority has become rehoming his beloved dog, Babs.
Fine, 63, recounted to WJAR how Babs entered his life a decade ago. She had been given up twice before a friend took her in and asked Fine to keep her in his garage. From that moment, the two became inseparable. Describing Babs, a Shar Pei Boxer mix, Fine said, “She’s the most important thing at this point.”
“I had told myself I was never going to get another pet because it breaks my heart to lose them. Fortunately, she’s going to outlive me this time,” he said. After retiring as a carpenter in 2020, Fine set out on a lifelong dream to travel, taking Babs with him. They visited Mt. Rushmore in South Dakota, but Fine fell ill 100 miles from Yellowstone, the place he most wanted to visit.
“It was my lifelong dream. I planned for 30 years or more. I was going to buy a truck, camper, and see the national parks. In 2020, I pulled the trigger. I took Babs with me, and I had a Cheshire green smile on my face the whole week I was there. And then I got sick. I started feeling bad, so sick that I couldn’t drive,” he said.
Before this trip, Fine had been diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia and underwent treatment. A year later, he developed a vascular disease in his legs, causing his arteries to shut down. Last August, he began experiencing chest pain, which led to his lung cancer diagnosis.
“The treatments would be brutal and wouldn’t give me much time,” Fine said. “I chose quality over quantity. The type of cancer this is, it’s going to want to spread. Then we call it quits, we check into a hospice, give up the dog, and that’s going to probably kill me.”
Despite his diagnosis, Fine remains positive. “I’m alright with it. I came to terms with it. It is what it is. I can try to extend things, but the chemo would make me sick. By the time I got better from one treatment, it would be time for the next one. That’s no way to live.”
Determined to find Babs a new home, Fine reached out to a local veterans program and posted a plea on Facebook, which went viral. He hopes to find someone local so he can help transition Babs into her new home. Fine, who has never married and has no children, asked extended family members, but they cannot take her due to their own pets.
“Babs needs to be the only pet in the house and would benefit from there being no small children,” he said. “She is extremely intelligent, well-behaved, bathroom-trained, and loves to sleep in a human bed but doesn’t do well with stairs.”
Fine added, “I’d like to find somebody like me, someone who wants a companion to greet them at the door. It’s like trying to find a home for your child. She’s the most important thing at this point. My fate is sealed, but hers is not. I have to make sure she gets as many good years as possible.”
Fine’s love for Babs and his determination to ensure her well-being is evident as he faces the end of his life. “I still want to see Yellowstone. I don’t think I’ll make it there, but I need to do this for her. Then I can rest in peace when the time comes, but I’m not ready to go yet,” he said.