Puppy love eats life savings

Ann Heron feeds the dogs at the kennels

A West Midlands grandmother is spending her life savings on rescuing five stray puppies from Greece.

Ann Heron, from Stourbridge, was so touched by the plight of the puppies during a holiday in Corfu during the summer that she decided to bring them home to the UK.

She is using her £8,000 savings to cover the costs.

The 61-year-old has already spent £3,000 on flights and now faces spending thousands of pounds in bills for kennel fees and injections while the labrador/collie crosses are in quarantine.

She fell for the puppies after her grandson spotted them on the way back from the beach during their summer holiday.

Upsetting conditions

When she heard people in Corfu say the puppies would be shot or poisoned when the tourist season was over, her mind was made up.

Jake, Lina, Morris, Thomas and Zeus are now in kennels in Warwickshire.

"I just couldn't bear to leave them there," said Ms Heron.

"They were on the side of the road, one got killed.

The puppies are now very well

"Even when I flew back home, to get the document to get them back, I looked back and I was upset at the thought that they were still on that island and I didn't know if I was going to be able to do it."

When she found the puppies they were living off scraps and covered in ticks and sores.

She parted with thousands of pounds to bring them back from Corfu, via Athens to the kennels in Bulkington, Warwickshire.

'Barking' mad

Her daughter Karen thinks her mum is barking mad.

"She is mad, absolutely, but she's my mother and she's absolutely wonderful," she said.

"The dogs are all going to stay in the family and the kids think she's absolutely super."

Lorraine Grove, of the Bayton Lodge Kennels, said the dogs were now doing well.

"They were in quite a bad condition with ticks and fleas and we had to bath them," she said.

"They have really come on well, if it hadn't of been for Ann they wouldn't have been here."

Now Ann's just counting the weeks until March when they will be released from quarantine and be able to complete the final stretch of their journey to their new home in Stourbridge.