Animal lovers Helen and Gavin Cook star in The Dog House NZ. Photo / Supplied
Animal lovers Helen and Gavin Cook star in The Dog House NZ. Photo / Supplied
Movie makers call it a Meet Cute - an amusing first encounter between two characters that leads to the development of a romantic relationship. Every fortnight Reset shares a real-life origin story.
Animal lovers Helen and Gavin Cook run the not-for-profit Country Retreat Animal Sanctuary and star in The Dog House NZ, which matches rescue dogs with potential families to find their forever homes. Originally from North Yorkshire, the Cooks have two children, Emma and Anthony, and two grandchildren, Nathaniel and Elijah.
Helen says…
My daughter Emma actually met Gavin before I did.
My best friend Barbara married one of Gavin’s friends, who he used to do bodybuilding with. Emma was one of the first ones down the aisle because she was a flower girl. She was about 2 at the time and she was throwing flowers, probably more than she should do, and Gavin was trying to guide her. I’d never met him.
They more or less came down the aisle hand in hand and then that’s when I saw him.
My first thought was “who the hell is that with my child?” because I’m a very protective mum. I’d had Emma young.
I could tell straight away that it was so nice that he was talking to her, and they were chatting away. He was a really sweet young man, coming down the aisle with Emma.
Later, at the dinner, he kept smiling at me a lot and my impression of him was that he was a big eater. Where the hell was he putting all that food?
I had to take Emma home, so I didn’t stay for the party. Gavin pestered Barbara, “when was I going to go around?”, and after that, it seemed that every time Emma and I went to see Barbara, Gavin was always there. He just popped up when I turned up.
One day he invited me and Emma out for the day at the local park – Stewart Park in Middlesbrough. And the poor lad – he tried so hard. He ran off to an icecream van and came back with these three big icecreams and I said, “my daughter can’t eat ice cream, she’s allergic and I don’t like ice cream”, so he sat there and ate all three.
I had an attraction to him physically, and he was just so nice.
Every time he’d come over, he always brought me flowers or chocolates and he would always bring something smaller for Emma. If I got roses, he would give her a rose. He knew we were a package deal, and we came as a unit and my top priority was Emma.
He accepted that, which for a young man at that age, who would normally be out nightclubbing, was a really refreshing change. He knew where I went, Emma went.
We just clicked and I felt safe, like we were a complete unit. He was like a jigsaw puzzle piece that put us all together.
Before he proposed he asked my dad for permission, he’s very traditional like that.
When he proposed it was very strange, because we were the only couple in our clique of friends who had a house. We were all still very young.
Everyone piled in to spend New Year’s Eve with us. And Gavin was shoving them all back out.
He wanted to propose at midnight and he didn’t want everyone there, so he kicked everyone out before the countdown.
Helen and Gavin Cook on their wedding day, April 7, 1989. Photo / Supplied
Even though he’s boisterous and he’s loud and he’s always annoying me, he’s got a very gentle side to him. I feel very protected by him. I know nothing’s going to happen to me.
We work together really well and acknowledge each other’s strengths and weaknesses. It’s always been teamwork with me and Gavin.
Gavin says…
We’re both from North Yorkshire.
I’m from Redcar on the coast and Helen’s from Guisborough, about 10 miles apart, but we didn’t meet until I was best man for one of the gym guys I used to train with, and I met Helen at the wedding.
I just thought she was a really lovely young lady. And, yeah, it went from there.
She just ticked all the boxes in my head – looks, personality, the way she behaved, what she thought about things. And. obviously. that grew the more we got to see each other.
We met at the wedding on April 25, 1987, and we had our first date on May 31, 1987, and we bought our first house together on December 14, 1987. We were engaged on January 1, 1988, which was Helen’s birthday, and we were married on April 7, 1989. Anthony was born in 1990 and we moved to New Zealand in 1993.
What do I love about Helen? Well apart from her looks and things, she is very compassionate. She does a lot for other people, a lot for the animals, puts up with a lot, puts up with me for a kick-off.
She always likes to be in the background, so she’ll help and support and do things, but she’ll always do it behind the scenes.
So where we are now is quite interesting [with The Dog House NZ], because it’s so far out of her comfort zone. She likes to do everything, but not get the credit for it.
