TERRASSA, Spain (Reuters) -Spanish collector Marià Gabarro did not care for real dogs but won a posthumous place in the Guinness World Records this year for the largest collection of canine-related items – 5,025 figurines, soft toys or dog-head walking sticks.
Gabarro, a sales manager from Terrassa, a town about 30 km (19 miles) from Barcelona, started his mammoth collection of figurines in his 60s.
When he died last year, aged 94, his children decided to see if the haul could claim a record as a tribute to their parents.
Gabarro acquired the figurines at markets and stored them in two houses.
Teresa Gabarro, 54, one of four siblings who now lets her West Highland White Terrier play with the soft toys, said: “(My parents) really liked the non-real dogs, but not the live ones.”
(Reporting by Horaci Garcia, writing by Graham Keeley; Editing by Andrei Khalip and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)
