Stray dog Fifi comes from Cyprus to stay with new Swindon family (From This Is Wiltshire)

A MONGREL who won the heart of a veterinary practice manager has been brought over from Cyprus to join his new family.

Martin Read, who works at the Drove Veterinary Hospital, in Croft Road, arranged to have Fifi transported to the UK so she could escape her tough life in the northern part of the mediterranean island.

He has been holidaying in the country for the past six years and said he always finds it difficult to see so many ownerless dogs there. Many die as a result of eating poison laid down in farmers’ fields.

But after befriending the spaniel terrier-cross, who he has named Fifi, during a holiday last spring, he could not bear the thought of her suffering the same fate.

So he inquired at the Kyrenia Animal Rescue Centre, 20 miles from where he was staying, about how he could bring Fifi to the UK now the quarantine rules have been relaxed.

Six months on and she has been wormed, microchipped, spayed, cleared for rabies and driven through Europe back to Swindon.

Martin said: “It was challenging when I started to rehome her and it’s taken six months from start to finish, but that’s quite normal.

“I did not really know what was involved initially and we had to find a foster carer who could take her to get all the jabs and tests while we were back in the UK, so it’s been a bit of a project to rescue her.

“The problem is the dogs over there often are abandoned or stray and many die from eating the poison farmers put down in their fields.

“I could not bear the thought of Fifi suffering that so I had to bring her home.

“She found me and stole a portion of my heart.

“Where we stay it is quiet and populated by small farm holdings where a lot of dogs are kept tied up by individuals and left for periods of time without sufficient food or turned loose to fend for themselves.

“Although this appears somewhat cruel to us, this is the reality of a normal life for a larger percentage of the dogs in this area of the island.”

Martin said Fifi had now been with the family since November and she was still settling in and getting used to living with their other dog, Misty.