Summer (left) and Bukhara (right)
Photography by Ernesta Swanepoel and Yasmin Chapman
When senior dogs Bukhara and Summer’s loving owner, David Katz, passed away, their fate hung in the balance. And then the Swanepoels stepped in.
The Dolphin Whisperer’s dogs
We never met David Katz, affectionately named Cape Town’s Dolphin Whisperer. David, who loved the sea deeply and spent his life fighting for the ocean and its denizens, was regularly accompanied by his faithful black-and-white dogs, Bukhara and Summer. When David unexpectedly passed away in December 2025, their entire world came crashing down. Used to an active life, sandy beaches and the ocean waves, the dogs now found themselves homeless and in kennels, while people desperately networked to find them a new home together
My brother, Juan, was his friend – they used to surf together. And it was Juan who shared with my mom and me the Cape of Good Hope SPCA’s notification about two dogs that were up for adoption.
Could it work?
When I saw the notification, I immediately knew that these were the dogs who’d belong in our household and with us. My brother also really wanted to adopt them, but he has small children, and a home with no kids was preferred.
At the same time, my partner, Paul, had been saying for a while that we should get a third dog. We have a mother-and-son duo: Belka is the mother, and she’s about the same age as Dave’s dogs. Smudgy is a bit younger; he’s about 12. From what we understand, Dave’s dogs – Bukhara and Summer – are between 12 and 14 years.
Paul had been worried that if something happened to Belka, Smudgy would be all alone. I, on the other hand, had always been worried that a third dog would interfere with or disrupt the nice rhythm that our two dogs have, as well as the rhythm that we have as a household.
But when I saw that Dave’s dogs desperately needed a home, that they were older, the same age and size as our dogs, and that they couldn’t be separated, I felt that this could work really well.
Bonding with bonded pairs
We then went to meet Bukhara and Summer – first just Paul and me, and afterwards we took Belka and Smudgy to meet them as well. The animal behaviourist then put into words something I’d been thinking but couldn’t quite articulate. She said that these were two bonded pairs, and that’s exactly what I saw when I first saw the photo of the two of them.
Our dogs got along well with them, so we completed the adoption forms. The Cape of Good Hope SPCA inspector came the same day to do an inspection of the property. The SPCA has been fantastic throughout this entire process. We were genuinely impressed with how they looked after the dogs and how professionally and compassionately they do their work.
We were told the following Friday that the adoption had been approved, and last Saturday Paul and I drove to collect them and brought them home. They’ve slotted in just perfectly.
Bukhara was a little skittish, and it was clear that both dogs were traumatised. From what the animal behaviourist told us, they were very traumatised when they first arrived at the SPCA, which is completely understandable. Bukhara is slowly coming out of her shell. She wagged her tail for the first time yesterday when she saw Paul. Summer thinks she’s always lived here and has been a happy camper since she set foot here.
Everything is going really well at home. They sniffed around a lot during the first day or two, found their way around, and then simply slotted in with our two dogs. Walking together has never been a problem, eating together hasn’t been a problem, and sleeping in the same area hasn’t been a problem. It truly feels as if they’ve always been here.
So now we have a happy home with four dogs!
