ALTHOUGH Jermaine Powis does not have a driver’s licence, when he saw the advertisement about the True MINI-Moments with Dad competition weeks ago, he could not stop himself from entering.

The true dog lover, who is also a trained dog groomer, was confident he stood a good chance of winning and wanted the once in a lifetime opportunity to spend a weekend keeping one of the 2023 British automotive marque MINI Countryman Cooper S cars, which was founded in 1969 and is owned by the German automotive company BMW.

“Mi nuh have no licence and mi win competition with car!” the 29-year-old dog groomer from Kingston amusingly said in an interview recently, after collecting the keys for the MINI at ATL Autobahn Limited located on Lady Musgrave Road.

“I feel good! I’m not bragging, but I knew I had a 90 per cent chance of winning because I’m a groomer and also a trainer so I have a lot of clients who use True Pet Food [who supported me]. Secondly, I had no doubt when I was entering the competition,” he said.

Given that Powis does not have a driver’s licence, he appointed one of his trusted friends, with a licence for over two years, to drive him around over the weekend through the parishes of Kingston and St Andrew, St Mary and St Ann.

During the road trips he intends to feed dogs he sees, that are homeless or hungry, with some of the True Pet Food products he won as part of the True MINI-Moments with Dad competition which was staged in June.

Powis, who has been employed for the last two years as a dog sitter with Quest Security Total Protection Group, said it has only been some months since he got his new best friend – an Akita and Belgian malinois, mixed-bred, female dog named Nala who will also go on his road trips with him. He received Nala as a gift from a friend in Old Harbour, St Catherine.

For his daily job at Quest, Powis said he accompanies dogs from the company’s holding area to locations being secured.

Powis is also the social media personnel for the Jamaica Dog Fraternity, and first became a dog groomer in 2014 after a friend called Anthony Hewitt introduced him to the profession.

“He taught me the training for obedience, aggression and grooming, and that’s how I got to start doing dog grooming,” he explained.

Tina Hamilton, senior manager at True Pet Food, is delighted that Powis intends to feed homeless dogs this weekend with the products he received as part of his prizes.

“Jermaine seems to be a true dog lover and we are really happy that he is focusing his win on dogs in need. This is also a cause that is special to us at True and we try to do what we can to help the canine community, and encourage others to do the same. Jermaine is most deserving of the prize of driving himself and his adorable dog, Nala, in the MINI Cooper,” Hamilton said.

“We hope Jermaine will continue to be an inspiration and role model, not only for dog dads islandwide but others who need to either harness or maintain good relations with our Jamaican animals,” she said.

The first True MINI-Moments with Dad competition was done in partnership with ATL Autobahn, the official dealer for BMW and MINI. This competition is also a part of the ongoing partnership between True Pet Food and the MINI PetFriendly campaign. You can follow their media pages to find out when the next competition will be posted.

For the competition, entrants are asked to post a 30-60-second video telling the public through a video post about their relationships with their dogs and why they deserve to win the competition. The contestant with the most likes at the end of the competition will win, as Powis did.