A WILTSHIRE Police worker has saved the life of a stray dog after he stole her heart while she was on holiday in Corfu.

Digital communications officer Lisa Ottaviano spotted the skinny little mutt hanging around the hotel where she was staying and was so concerned about him she embarked on a rescue mission.

Now re-named Jake, he is settling down to a life of comfort and good food in Wiltshire.

The mongrel was blind in one eye, painfully thin and losing his fur. But he captured Lisa’s heart.

“He was quite scrappy and he had wound marks all over him where he had been lying on the concrete. He was emaciated really,” she said.

“He was just looking after himself, not bothering anybody, but you could tell there was something not quite right.

“He wasn’t attractive in any way but his personality shone through.”

Watching him as he drank from the swimming pool she decided to make sure he had clean water and whatever food she could give him.

“He found me every day and he would just camp around us,” she said.

“I was getting really attached to him. I’ve been on holiday lots and you see animals all the time at these places,” she said. “You can’t help them all. It’s impossible.”

But Lisa started worrying because the hotel was due to close down for the season after she flew home. No holidaymakers meant no scraps for the strays.

“I thought he wouldn’t survive the winter,” she said.

She searched for animal rescue charities on the island and found The Ark, an organisation that specialises in finding new homes for strays.

“It was never my intention to bring him home because I already have a dog,” said Lisa. “But I felt like his life was in my hands.”

She was hoping the charity would take him off the streets, but it was full however she was told she could take him home if he was inoculated.

Lisa's main concern was cost but Jake’s plight had caught the attention of other holidaymakers at the hotel and they offered to help pay the £550 for him to be brought to the UK.

Then it was a race against time. On the last day of her holiday she hired a car, bundled Jake into it and took him to the shelter. There she said goodbye to him – he needed a rabies jab and had to wait three weeks to make sure he was not infected.

Jake stayed at the shelter for eight weeks having his wounds treated and slowly gaining strength. He was one of 200 dogs being built up to be taken to new homes in other countries.

A few days before Christmas, Jake was loaded in a van with other dogs all on their way to the UK to start new lives.

Lisa picked him up from South Mimms services on the M25 and took him home to Trowbridge.

He was still painfully thin, but he was snug in a little jumper and a cheerful bandanna. “I was really relieved that he had made it.”

Luckily he settled in quickly and Lisa’s other dog Bailey accepted him.

Jake is still very thin because his stomach has shrunk, but little by little, Lisa hopes to be able to feed him up.

Visit corfuanimalwelfare.com for more information on the work of The Ark.