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On his way to work the Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia, Howard Baggley was already aware of the almost 4,000 stray dogs wandering the city – most of them, around Olympic Park.

What he didn’t know was that one of those dogs would end up stealing his heart — and end up back with him in Canada.

Meet Sochi (pictured above). The vet says she’s between one and two years old, is a mixed breed and in perfect health. But less than a month ago she was one of thousands of stray dogs wandering the streets of Sochi (the city)… until Baggley found her.

“She was laying in the grass, I thought she might have been dead. But I walked over to her and her little tail started to wag, she immediately rolled over on her belly. I was rubbing her belly and that was it.”

Abandoned by her owners, she appeared to be in good shape. “She was communally owned, the cooks, the guards the people that worked in the area – they all fed the dogs. They didn’t take them in, but they did feed them.”

A self confessed dog lover with four rescues already back at his Mount Albert home, Baggley decided then and there he had to adopt Sochi and take her back to Canada.

The big question was, ‘how’?

“I heard a rumour through someone else talking that the local government was making it easier and making the paperwork a little bit easier to get dogs out of Russia.”

So his wife started making phone calls. Howard says it was a lengthy and bureaucratic process getting Sochi into Canada. It took two-plus weeks to get all the paperwork in order.

But the rest is history. Now on Canadian soil, Sochi has adjusted well to her new surroundings. “She’s just one of the family now. It’s taken very little time — at times she seems a little bit out of sorts but by and large she’s happy to be here, she’s a happy dog.”

Even her four new furry housemates seem to be taken with her. “They’re great, they love her. She’s one of the pack already.”

Howard’s wife has now enrolled Sochi in agility classes — mainly to get her doggy exercise, and not necessarily for the competition factor.