Couple's wedding in Italy put in jeopardy after dog eats groom's passport
A South Boston couple's dream wedding in Italy is in limbo, not because of a jealous ex or a disapproving family member, but because their dog ate one of their passports.
In a report by Boston-based news outlet WCVB, husband-to-be Donato Frattaroli was surprised when he discovered that his golden retriever Chickie chewed several pages of his passport into pieces.
This has put the couple in a difficult situation, as there are only a few days left until he weds Magda Mazri in Italy on Aug. 31.
The couple discovered Chickie's naughty act when they returned home after visiting the city hall to collect their marriage license.
"I’m just a little stressed,” Frattaroli recalled to the news outlet regarding what happened. "Luckily, Congressman [Stephen] Lynch’s office and Sen. [Ed] Markey’s office have been super responsive. They’ve been in touch, at least with me and the State Department, to try to expedite things and help me get a new passport."
"Keep my fingers crossed and, hopefully, everything will work itself out," he added.
Mazri meanwhile told NBC Boston that the damage done by their 18-month-old pooch to the passport had been quite severe, having eaten the first four pages of the document, several back pages, and a stamp from Mexico, where the couple got engaged a few years ago.
"It was like every important page. Like all of his personal information—completely torn up, his picture page was torn up, the barcode on the back of the passport was torn up," she explained.
Despite this, Mazri clarified that Chickie is a "very good dog" and is "not a house destroyer."
She emphasized that she is trying to stay hopeful in the face of the upsetting development, "I'm not allowing myself to even think Plan B. There's no other option for me. We are going to Italy on Friday one way or the other."
However, if the passport does not come in time for the wedding, Frattaroli told WCVB that his fiancée and all of their wedding guests would have to travel to Italy without him and that he would welcome his fiancée and the wedding guests when they return to the United States.