‘Unconditional friendship’: How an injured dolphin healed Melody Horrill’s traumatic past

Author Melody Horrill discusses her new book ‘A Dolphin Called Jock’, which explores how her work with dolphins helped get her life on track after a heartbreaking background of domestic violence. Ms Horrill said her life was “dominated” by violence and fear, growing up in a domestic violence household before becoming a research assistant on a dolphin project. There she met a dolphin called Jock – a solitary dolphin with a badly disfigured dorsal fin from being wrapped in fishing nets. “He showed me a friendship that was unconditional - there were no strings attached with it, and I had never experienced that kind of unconditional friendship and acceptance from anything before in my life,” she told Sky News host Chris Kenny. “So for this completely wild creature to embrace me that way was quite remarkable.” Ms Horrill said she learned a lot from the injured dolphin, who obliterated the “walls around my heart”. “My interactions with him also helped me realise that the world was much bigger,” she said. “He really opened up my world and taught me how to trust again, and I think that’s the key thing – this dolphin that had been so badly injured by human beings trusted me, and that taught me a lot about trust and entering his world and his environment. “That relationship with that wild dolphin really changed me and really opened me up and set me on a path I would never have found if I never met Jock.” If you or anyone you know needs help: Lifeline: 13 11 14 Beyond Blue: 1300 22 4636 Kids Helpline: 1800 55 1800