Hotel dog who saved his owner’s life

(CNN) – Ten years ago the Cinque Terre region of Italy was hit by severe floods.

On October 25, 2011, five small fishing villages – long a magnet for tourists from around the world – suffered one of the worst floods the region has ever seen. Thirteen people died, and many more lost property and possessions. The streets of Vernazza, perhaps the most famous of the villages, were covered with mud at the feet.

Everyone in the Cinque Terre has a story to tell about that terrible day. One of the most extraordinary comes from Pierpaolo Paradisi, a local hotelier. He says that on that fateful day, his dog saved his life – the dog after which he has now named his hotel.

But a decade ago, Prevo and Sentiero Azzuro were all devastated when mudslides went under the rock, sweeping away everything in their path and burying the streets below in mud and debris.

Paradisi – an aspiring hotelier at the time – was working in La Spezia, the gateway town of the Cinque Terre. Originally from Sardinia, he had moved to Liguria 15 years ago. He was on a hiking vacation when, while walking Santiero Azuro, he came across Prevo. It was abandoned at the time – and Paradisi immediately thought it might make a great hotel. He embarked on a massive renovation project – but, five years later, a flood struck.

meet-cute

Exactly a month ago, she had got a dog, Leo – a rescue puppy from Serbia. While watching Facebook over the summer, he read about a group of animal rights activists—Serbian models who brought strays and cats and dogs to Italy for work every time.

“In [Yugoslav] War, people had to give up their pets — dogs, cats, turtles — so they multiplied,” Paradisi says. “So by then there was a problem with stray dogs.”

Strays would be rounded up and taken to a kennel, where, Paradisi says, she was at risk of being euthanized if she was not claimed within 48 hours.

Models would pay €100 for each dog, but at the time, the average Serbian salary was only €250 a month, he says. To help the animals, he sent a message to the group asking them to choose a dog for themselves.

“I said I just needed a short one, because I use the train a lot,” he recalls.

He chose a small, tan colored dog from Belgrade.

“His story was special,” Paradisi says. “He was caught with his mother and sister, and they were killed in front of him.

“I have a picture of the cage he was in. Of the 48 dogs, he was the only one they rescued.”

Leo, as Paradisi would name him, arrived in Liguria on 25 September 2011.

storm day

A month later, although the dogs were banned from his office, he decided to take his new pet to work. A storm was already brewing in the area, and he felt uncomfortable leaving the dog at home.

“It was a crime that saved my life,” he says.

By the time the pair reached La Spezia, the storm had already begun – heavy rain, thunder and hail. Paradisi decided to leave early, fearing that the weather would get worse.

“Even in the first mile, it changed—I’ve never seen it this bad before,” he says.

“A whirlwind of water hit the mountains, and I couldn’t see a meter ahead. My vision was about 30 centimeters, so I was driving too slow.”

Paradisi had Leo in the back of his car for the 17-mile journey, and for most of it, the dog sat there quietly. Until, getting closer and closer to Prevo, the car wound around the cliff, Leo made his move.

“He jumped forward and on my knees, so I had to stop,” says Paradisi.

“I was furious – I said, ‘Leo, I’m driving.'”

At that moment – as he was trying to get the dog off his lap and go again – the rock fell in front of them.

“The mountain just came down, and the landslide took away the asphalt and the railing as well. It almost touched the car. A meter further, and we’d be gone,” he says.

Paradisi is convinced that Leo saved both of their lives.

Not that he realized it at the time. In shock, he says, he managed to turn the car around and make it to Manarola, another of the Cinque Terre villages.

“It was then that I understood what was happening, he says.

“I called the police and they said, ‘You need to take care of yourself because there’s nothing we can do, we’re completely isolated – you should try to find help.

The couple slept in their car that night. The next day, with the road still destroyed, he tried to reach his home on foot via the Santiero Azuro path, a pleasant journey for tourists today. On that day, it was far from idyllic.

“It felt like a battlefield,” Paradisi says. “Five helicopters were going here and there in search of the missing. One boat capsized, and people were shouting, others were searching for the missing.

“Our house was fine, but we couldn’t get there because a landslide had cut it.”

Not knowing what else to do, Paradisi called some friends to explain what had happened.

“He said, ‘It was thanks to Leo that you were alive.’ I still don’t understand it.”

running a hotel together

Today, their home is a cliff-side hotel with self-catering apartments, and the pair are inseparable.

Paradisi has named the property Leo’s Lodge, and a tile of dog stands proudly attached to the door.

Leo plays the consummate host, greeting guests, accompanying them to their rooms, and conducting regular security patrols of the property, which sits right on the main sidewalk, and runs from tourists every minute.

He accompanies Paradisi every afternoon to pick up guests in his jeep from nearby Corniglia.

Says Paradisi, “We’re together 24/7 — I take him everywhere, even to the dentist. I can’t take him to court.”

Meanwhile, Singh’s fame has spread far and wide. In 2012, the year after the flood, he was awarded the top prize at the Premio Internazionale Fedelta del Cane, or the International Prize for Dog Loyalty – as “first among equals” out of 10 equally exceptional dogs. was selected in.

Paradisi thinks it was no coincidence that Leo prevented him from driving that day.

He says that although he initially attributed it to fear of dogs, experts believe there could be more to it.

“They can’t explain it scientifically, but they think that some dogs have this ability – dogs that suffer [trauma] Develop a seventh sense,” says Paradisi.

“Dogs have 150 million olfactory receptors in their nose; humans have five million. They think this gives them the ability to perceive a threat in some way or another. They know that something is happening, even when We can’t understand.

“They think that in certain meteorological conditions they can smell something. The ozone that I use these days to disinfect rooms – that’s what you smell after thunder and lightning. So dogs can probably smell the smell which We can’t during such strong weather.The smell of hail and thunder must have convinced him that we need to stop.

“If he had just been scared, he could hold back and cry. But he was completely silent – almost as if he was listening to something. And at a certain point, he was like, ‘Sufficient — That’s all, we need to stop.’ That was my feeling.”

In fact, he says that his old office in La Spezia had a balcony, which all humans knew to be dangerous. Instinctively, Leo did too – he didn’t even go inside the room.

Cinque Terre. the future of

The tragedy of 10 years ago has had a lasting impact on Paradisi.

Although he remained in the area, fulfilling his dream of turning the abandoned village of Prevo into a hotel – he now has room for 40 people, Leo Lodge, between a few apartments and a villa – he remains permanently vigilant. Is.

“The floods made me realize that the Cinque Terre is a very dangerous area,” he says. “Geologists think this will be the first region in Italy to disappear.”

And if he gets a weather warning message, he goes straight home. “I lock myself in the house because it’s safer to be inside — but I wouldn’t go to bed, I lay on the couch with Leo and the cats,” he says. He can sleep there as long as necessary – ready to run, fully clothed, with medicine and a torch in hand.

In fact, seven of her cats disappeared in the landslide—but, miraculously, they all returned in the following months.

Leo is about 14 years old now, and Paradisi “frequently” thinks about the day he will be left alone.

“It would be impossible to substitute him, but I’ll take the second one, because I want to help the other dog. I’ll keep getting them from Serbia,” he says.

“I will have to grieve a little for him, but after a few months, I will ask for a dog from the same kennel in Belgrade. In honor and in memory of Leo.”

But for now, Leo isn’t going anywhere, and they’re happily running the lodge together.

And this week, as the Cinque Terre prepares to commemorate the horrific events of 10 years ago, Paradisi will be thinking back to that afternoon on the road to Vernazza — and the dog that saved her, and her side of a hotel by the sea. Dreams.