Bolek and his late brother Lolek once lived in the Bosnian shelter of Preslica, where Svetlana worked as a volunteer. At that time this shelter was not such a bad place for dogs, but it had an insufficient number of kennels to keep dogs safe. Lolek became the victim of this when other dogs attacked him in a particular badly crowded compound. He did not survive and Bolek was left behind. When Svetlana moved to her new home in Serbia, she took Bolek from the Preslica shelter. Bolek actually lived in her apartment for a while, and did quite well. Svetlana recalls he had a thing with mirrors. Whenever he saw his reflection, he would bark at the mirror. Maybe the image reminded him of his brother Lolek, who looked exactly like Bolek.