Student Stories: Find Polenta

Barbara Ianelli is from Brazil and currently studying at our London Central school. Her dog, Polenta, has been missing for over two months now. She has been devastated to hear the news from her parents and boyfriend who are doing everything they can to find the lovely pet. Barbara has managed to put some videos and pictures on the Facebook page ‘Cadê a Polenta?’ and through that got in contact with a popular Brazilian TV channel which showed her story on TV – now millions of people are in search of Barbara’s dog in Sao Paulo, Brazil, while Barbara is here studying with us. The fan page has over 7600 likes and through this, they have helped other cases of lost dogs.

‘Hello! My name is Bárbara; I’m from São Paulo, Brazil, and I’m living in London for 4 months to study English. In São Paulo I have a dog that is the love of my life, called Polenta. Polenta taught me the most beautiful things in my life, like how to appreciate simple things and be a better person. We rescued her when she was 45 days old. Fragile and scared, she quickly fell in love with Marcos, my boyfriend. Since then, we have been living in a love triangle: I love her, she loves Marcos and he loves me.

Unfortunately a terrible thing happened: Polenta ran away from home. The nightmare began on 4th October and our life changed completely. We made a fan page on Facebook to spread her picture through the internet and reach the greatest number of people. The fan page name is ‘Cadê a Polenta?’, which means ‘Where’s Polenta?’. It has almost 7000 likes and through the fan page, we have helped other cases of lost dogs. It’s amazing to know there are a lot of people helping us, and this encourage us to ‘keep calm and find Polenta’.

I believe that she’ll go back home soon and she’ll welcome me at the airport.‘