American Befriends Sochi Stray, Plans To Bring Her Home

A Denver man will be coming home from the Olympic Games in Sochi with an amazing souvenir -- a cute stray dog he called Fisht, after the Olympic stadium -- whom he befriended, nursed back to health and is planning on taking home. Neil Dreher, a technician who has been working on the Olympic ceremonies for the past few weeks, was approached by four "very kind, loving visitors." He brought three of them to a veterinarian, but only one survived.

"Throughout Sochi, there are hundreds of stray dogs. On the Olympic work site we have had daily visits from some of the friendliest, most social stray dogs I've ever seen," Dreher said.

A Denver man will be coming home from the Olympic Games in Sochi with an amazing souvenir -- a cute stray dog he called Fisht, after the Olympic stadium -- whom he befriended, nursed back to health and is planning on taking home. Neil Dreher, a technician who has been working on the Olympic ceremonies for the past few weeks, was approached by four "very kind, loving visitors." He brought three of them to a veterinarian, but only one survived.

"Throughout Sochi, there are hundreds of stray dogs. On the Olympic work site we have had daily visits from some of the friendliest, most social stray dogs I've ever seen," Dreher said.

After four trips to the vet, Fisht is doing much better, and Dreher plans to take her home to Denver. He created a page on the crowdfunding website www.indegogo.com to raise money for her transport.

"The plan is to get her home to Denver. So far she has been vaccinated, microchipped, and has her passport," Dreher writes. "She needs a flight home, and she's staying at the only kennel in the Sochi region that had availability, which is 500 rubles per night, not including food...It all costs a lot of Rubles!"

You can donate to Dreher and Fisht here. See this post to learn about how you can adopt one of Sochi's strays too, or this post to find out other ways to help.