My puppy love has cost £ 6k

Dog travels from Saudi Arabia

A big- hearted gran and her husband spent £ 6,000 adopting a stray puppy from Saudi Arabia. Michele McCrindle, 50, fell in love with pooch Poppy online after husband Callum, 49, starting posting photos of her from the Arabian desert. The Girvan couple had to overcome a mountain of red tape to fly the little dog more than 3,000 miles to Scotland. Brave Poppy was held in quarantine in London for three months before being finally dispatched by courier to her new South Ayrshire home. Michele has published a book to tell the tale of Poppy’s incredible journey. The little dog kept turning up at Callum’s work abroad at a gas and oil base near the Red Sea looking for scraps of food. He began to care for the poor pup and posted pictures online for Michele to see back in Scotland. Michele said: “If Callum didn’t film her I would message asking him to please video her. It became a video diary, which we shared with friends. I felt like she was mine.”

A turning point came when Callum turned up to find someone had tied Poppy’s foot up with a rope - leaving her limping and swollen. The pair became worried for her safety and decided to take the complicated step of rescuing her from the country.

Michele said: “We had to go to the Saudi Ministry for Agriculture to get permission for Poppy to leave the country. She was kept in quarantine at Heathrow for three months. We flew down to see her and she recognised Callum but that was the first time I met her.”

Poppy was finally released after getting the all clear for rabies and arrived on Michele’s doorstep in April.

The white one- year- old dog is settling in well at her Girvan home with Michele’s other pets - two miniature pinschers Beau, four and Thai, three.

The grandmother of four, said: “I absolutely adore Poppy. She loves people. You would never know she is a wild dog now. But the first week was frightening as she was so scared of being in a strange house with a garden. She still has some odd habits she has brought with her from the desert. She tries to hide some of her food in case she doesn’t get any later, which is what she did in Saudi.

“She was also terrified of her reflection thinking it was another dog. We take her to the beach in Girvan, which she loves. But rain freaks her out as she’d never experienced that before.”

She estimates it cost them about £ 6,000 to pay for her immigration.

Michele’s children’s book on Poppy’s life, which is told through her eyes is called from Wilderness to Water.

It is available through Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Waterstones.