She’d travelled to a paradise island for a few months to do some soul searching, and Niki Benjamin, from the U.S., found her life moving in a completely new direction when her dog ran up to a stranger.
It all began in late 2014, when Benjamin, a former music executive, took an extended trip to the Caribbean destination of St. Martin (Sint Maarten in Dutch,) one of her favourite places, “to figure things out.”
“I’ve often found refuge and solace and made some pretty big life decisions just on vacation [there,]” she tells CNN Travel. “So it’s like my safe place.”
Beach encounter
Benjamin had been walking along the beach with her beloved pooch Dylan in tow when a man in a nearby restaurant caught his attention.
“I saw him [Dylan] licking some shoes,” Benjamin tells …