LThe 90-year-old actress adopted Greyhound Jim two years ago, giving him a normal life and saving him from being put down. Today Sandra Milo celebrates her fifth year of life with himremembering the emotions experienced together and assuring him of a wonderful future with his daughter, Azzurra De Lollis, 53 years old.
The story of Sandra Milo’s dog
In dog Jim’s life there is a before and an after. Very young, from 2019 to 2021, it was used in Ireland in commercial racing. Kept in captivity and in conditions of total exploitation for profit, he was then rescued by the association Pet Greyhounds Onlus and entrusted to the actress. Who remembers those first moments with emotion. «When you arrived you were scared and disoriented but slowly you blossomed like a May rose, you opened up and revealed a wonderful character by which we have all been conquered».
Saved from suppression, it blossomed “like a May rose”
The dog was then one step away from suppression: a fate common to animals exploited in racing, whose career is very short. «You made us know the determination in wanting to change, inabandon the old ingrained habits acquired in years of training and competitions at the dog track to become just what you always wanted to be: a balanced, serene, competent dog, free to run only for his own pleasure and not for the will to comply with his trainer’s orders».
A dog in the life of an elderly person
As Sandra Milo herself recalls, the dog is registered to his daughter Azzurra De Lollis who takes care of it personally «and doesn’t treat him like a lap dog but allows him to do his 12/15 km». The actress responds with this clarification to those who have “insinuated that you should never let an elderly woman adopt a dog”.
Sandra Milo’s daughter takes care of it
In reality, Milo’s words are enough to give an idea of the fundamental role that a pet can have in the life of an older personthe. «In my life you will always occupy a privileged space, You will always be the blue Jim with the clear eyes of my heart». Just, in fact, that there is a younger “reference” human that supports the dog-grandfather (or grandmother) couple. And that the dog is well behaved, just like Jim who “doesn’t pull on the leash and follows the handler without yanking”.
Milo suggests that the dog Jim will go to live with Azzurra and with a «new four-legged life partner in a place of your own». But «no one», assures the actress, «will steal the freedom you have tasted and it will be yours foreverno one will deny you care and boundless love».
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