A Dolphin Called Jock

The compelling, heart-warming story of how a traumatised young woman found peace through her friendship with an injured dolphin called Jock.


'In this unputdownable account of the healing power of nature and the discovery of trust, an orphaned river dolphin gives a young woman a new life and a profound purpose - to help save the beautiful, sentient creatures that saved her.' Brad Collis, author of Snowy and Fields of Discovery


When Melody Horrill arrived as a student at the University of South Australia she was a troubled and lost young woman, hiding behind a carefully crafted exterior. She had experienced a childhood of emotional and physical trauma mainly at the hands of her violent father that was as damaging as it was brutal. 


One day Melody volunteered to help her university lecturer monitor pods of river dolphins that lived in the waters of Port Adelaide. There for the first time she encountered Jock, a solitary dolphin with a maimed fin, who lived apart from the highly social pods. Melody was to form a bond with Jock that gave her the key to freeing herself from the demons of her own past, and their extraordinary friendship was the start of a long-term mission to try to save the river dolphins.


Beautifully written and filled with insight and compassion, Melody's memoir details her life-changing relationship with the river dolphins, and how Jock helped her to heal.