John Mills has faced some tough times over the past few years, battling two heart attacks and three bouts of cancer.
His new best friend Charlie, a rescue dog from K9, is in a similar situation, having been given only six to 12 months to live after being diagnosed with cancer herself.
Mr Mills says before Charlie, he had a wonderful dog for 15 years and thought it would be too hard to replace his long-time pet.
But one Saturday morning he was scrolling through Facebook and saw the K9 post of Charlie (then known as Taco) and something just clicked.
"People get dogs on knee jerk reaction, it wasn't like that for me, it's a very important thing, like having a kid."
"I just saw that face," Mr Mills recalls. "Cancer has come back at me three times...I don't know if that's why I gravitated towards Charlie so much. I figured if she's only got 6-12 months then I'm gonna make sure they're good ones."
He says he wasn't given much chance of survival either but he has made a full recovery so he and his new best friend would "stay positive together".
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The owner of pool building company, Sunseeker Pools, Mr Mills was happily rendering a pool about five years ago when he first noticed something was amiss with his health.
"I started feeling funny, I was having a heart attack out of nowhere. I called an ambulance but then cancelled it and tried to drive myself."
He says he died on the operating table for four minutes, but a few days later was back on the job.
"When you're self-employed that's what you have to do," he says.
Doctors found four tumours in his bowels and an arduous treatment began including chemotherapy, radiation and an operation to remove part of his bowel.
"A couple of scans later they found a tumour on my liver, not long after another one on my lung. I died a couple more times in recovery but I'm back to pretty much normal now."
I figured if she's only got 6-12 months then I'm gonna make sure they're good ones.
- John Mills
He says his coping method had been to crack jokes about his health issues and while that had upset some people, it was his way of dealing with it.
"You can either curl up in a ball and give up or get on with it and have a laugh."
He says he wouldn't give Charlie up "for anything" now and some of his favourite moments are going driving with her head on his shoulder.
"She's made her mark with us," he says.
"My partner is great with her and she loves her like I do. We talk to her like she's our kid. She knows she's here for good.
"When we took her to K9 to get her stitches out she started to panic. I think she thought we were taking her back. Once she realised she was coming home with us she was fine. She's feeling more secure now."
