2:26pm Thursday 25th February 2010
By Joe Ware
A family of dog lovers in Malmesbury are having to give their pooch commands in Italian after adopting a stray while on holiday and spending £4,000 to bring her home.
Sue and Kevin Franklin and daughters Daisy, five, Amy, 14, and Livvi, 11, felt sorry for the flea ridden collie cross they named Lola which started following them around the town of Gissi while they were holidaying there last August.
They have since brought her home and are getting used to the language barrier.
Mrs Franklin, who already had three dogs and three cats, said: “She’s starting to understand.
“If you tell her do something in English and use lots of hand gestures she just about understands.
“But if you say it in Italian she does it straight away.
“We’ve been on holiday to Italy a few times though so we know a few phrases.”
She said Lola was in a bad way. “She had two open horrible wounds where we think she might have been attacked and picked up by a bigger dog.
“The flea dirt on her belly was like tar. I’d never seen a dog in that condition before.
“She slept in the porch of the bank across the street from our hotel room.”
The family took pity on the mangy animal who was shunned by the local Italians, wary of a skin disease often carried by stray dogs and took her to a vet.
They were told if they didn’t keep her she would be sent to a ‘rescue centre’ where dogs were often poorly treated and sometimes shot.
Lola now has more than 70 fans on her Facebook page.
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