IN Gov., wife, and Nigel
Indiana's first dog, Nigel, doesn't seem to have learned much at doggy boot camp.Cheri Daniels has been trying to rehabilitate the bearded collie, a gift to her from her husband, Gov. Mitch Daniels.
Unfortunately, Nigel chews anything he can get his teeth on.
The first couple tried obedience school, but that didn't work. He still chewed up several remote controls, shoes, drapes, a couch and a lamp cord. So Cheri Daniels sent him to boot camp in Fishers, where Nigel could get intensive behavioral training.
[...]
Nigel came home last week -- and everything seemed fine for a while, the governor reported.
But by the end of the next day, Nigel had a relapse. Daniels said he'll probably always think of him as the "incorrigible Nigel."
The casualty this time?
A pair of flip-flops.
Laika and Cpl. Matthew P. Cobb
CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (May 18, 2005) -- Working side-by-side every day, Marines are naturally a tight-knit group. When the Marine beside you is a military working dog, the relationship isn’t any different.Cpl. Matthew P. Cobb, a Topeka, Kan., native, is a dog handler with 2nd Military Police Battalion, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Headquarters Group, II MEF (FWD) and is in Iraq for his first deployment.
Cobb and his working dog, Laika, have a close relationship. They have lived, eaten and slept by each other on a daily basis since arriving in Iraq in January.
Cobb said Laika has human characteristics so he considers her his sidekick.
“Laika is just like any 21-year-old girl, that’s three in dog years,” said Cobb with a smile. “I know if she were human, she’d be wild, so I keep her in line. By thinking of her as a human and friend, it helps me to match our personalities.”
Every day, training is the most important part of Laika’s schedule. Cobb said she must build her endurance not only for her missions, but also for the climate here in Iraq.
“She [Laika] doesn’t know it, but all the playing and training is good for her,” Cobb said. “We play fetch every day until she’s tired, and she lets me know when she is tired by laying in the shade or she just gives me that look.”
Along with training comes the daily up-keep of Laika. She has a feeding and grooming schedule, and her weight has to be monitored daily.
“I feed her four cups of dog food a day,” said Cobb. “It changes, just as we change our food intake. If it’s been a long, hard day, I feed her more. If we’re relaxing back at the kennels, I feed her less. I brush her coat three times a day, too.”
When Cobb and Laika are called out on missions in Iraq, they do searches, patrols, and squad movements just as the other Marines. Cobb trains for combat situations at Marine Corps Base, Camp Lejeune, N.C., where he is stationed.
“Our main mission while in Iraq, to put it simply, is to find bombs and bad guys,” Cobb said. “The dogs know how to search for every type of explosive out there.”
I first mentioned the story of a Wal-Mart worker shooting a stray cat in the face back in December. There's now a chance that justice might be served:
EVANSVILLE, Ind. - A former Wal-Mart employee accused of shooting a cat to death will face felony charges after all.The animal cruelty charge against Christopher S. Anderson had been dropped to a misdemeanor, but Anderson's attorney, Michael C. Keating, said Friday that a Vanderburgh County judge had dismissed that charge.
Keating said the judge ruled Anderson could not be charged with a misdemeanor unless he had beaten the cat rather than shot it. Prosecutors then refiled the felony charge.
Keating acknowledged that his client shot the cat, but said the charge was out of proportion to the crime and that Anderson would fight it.
Indiana's felony animal cruelty statute requires a finding that a defendant knowingly mutilated or tortured an animal.
Sheriff's deputies arrested Anderson, 29, and another former store employee, Jeffrey Hardin, 21, on Dec. 28.
Anderson told investigators that he shot the cat with a pellet gun after the store manager ordered employees to get rid of the animal, which was living in a storage trailer behind the store on the city's east side.
The cat was wounded but survived, a sheriff's report said, and the next day Anderson and Hardin repeatedly shot the cat with a pellet gun until it died.
Aptenobytes is hosting the latest Carnival of the Cats.
The Modulator has The Friday ARK up.
And how about some Friday Wolf Blogging?
Well, if you can't concealed-carry, having a big dog around is pretty good, too. From the Daily Herald (IL):
Naperville police are crediting a woman's 100-pound dog with saving her from further harm by an assailant near her apartment.Sgt. Joel Truemper said the woman, who police did not name, had taken her dog for a short walk around 11:30 p.m. Thursday when she was jumped from behind, knocked to the ground, choked and punched in the face.
The woman's dog, a Great Pyrenees, bit the attacker in the face and chest, she told police.
Truemper said there was no blood trail left by the assailant and a check of area hospitals for men seeking treatment for dog bites was unsuccessful.
"Instead of letting the guy get chewed up by her dog, she grabbed the dog and ran back into her apartment to call police," Truemper said.
According to the American Kennel Club's Web site, the Great Pyrenees is "territorial and protective of his flock or family when necessary. His general demeanor is one of quiet composure, both patient and tolerant."
I just realized that I forgot to mark the one-year blogoversary of Tarazet last month.
My friend Wendy complained recently that I've never had a story about pet turtles. Allow me to remedy that Right Now. From Ananova:
A Chinese man pretended to be a hunchback to smuggle his pet turtle on to a plane.Wu, who is in his 60s, strapped the turtle to his back before boarding the plane to Chongqing.
He got through security but was then stopped by a guard who thought his hump looked odd.
A quick search uncovered the turtle which had a 20cm diameter and weighed about 5kg.
Wu, who was flying home to Chongqing after eight years in Guangzhou, said he knew he was not allowed to take live animals on board but was too attached to his turtle.
Finally, he changed plane and checked the pet in as baggage, reports the New Express.
Still need more convincing that dogs are our four-footed guardian angels? From the AP:
A newborn baby abandoned in a Kenyan forest was saved by a stray dog who apparently carried her across a busy road and through a barbed wire fence to a shed where the infant was discovered nestled with a litter of puppies, witnesses said Monday.The baby girl, named "Angel" by hospital workers, was clad in a tattered shirt and wrapped in a plastic bag when the dog found her Friday, according to Aggrey Mwalimu, owner of the shed where the baby was discovered in a poor neighborhood near the Ngong Forest in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi.
"When the dog picked up the baby in a dirty bag, it came and dropped her behind the wooden building where the dog has its puppies," Mwalimu told The Associated Press Monday.
The 7-pound, 4-ounce infant was taken to a hospital and "is doing well, responding to treatment. She is stable ... she is on antibiotics," said Hannah Gakuo, spokeswoman of the Kenyatta National Hospital.
The baby was found after two children reported hearing an infant's cries near their wood and corrugated metal shack.
"I followed them outside and we started looking around the compound and a nearby plot," said Mary Adhiambo, the children's mother.
They eventually found the tan mixed-breed dog lying protectively with a puppy beside the mud-splattered baby wrapped in a torn black shirt, Adhiambo said. The short-haired dog with light brown eyes has no name, residents said.
The stray dog that saved the child also was being cared for Tuesday, a day after its last surviving puppy died for unknown reasons, said Jean Gilchrist of the Kenya Society for the Protection and Care of Animals.Animal welfare officials named the dog "Mkombozi," or "Savior," and gave the dog its first bath and de-worming.
"She looks a bit depressed, so we'd like to examine her to see if she has a temperature or any other problem," Gilchrist said. "She wasn't happy when we all poured into the compound. She decided to leave, but kids in the compound brought her back for the bath because she was full of ticks."
Mary Adhiambo, a resident in the compound where the dog lives, said Mkombozi apparently found the baby Friday in a plastic bag.
The dog reportedly dragged the baby across a busy road and through some barbed wire to the shed in the poor Nairobi neighborhood where puppies from two stray dogs were sheltering.
Now, an amazing story KOCO TV (OK):
Six years after the disastrous May 3, 1999, tornadoes that left a swath of destruction through Oklahoma City, people are still finding things they lost in the chaos -- but those stories are likely nothing compared to the story of a dog that was recently reunited with her family in Choctaw after six years.During the events of six years ago, many things were lost in south Oklahoma City and surrounding suburbs -- including pets. Ginger, a Dalmatian belonging to the Collins family, was only a puppy when she was lost in the storm.
"All these years went by, and I always thought, 'Where would she be if she was still alive?'" said Ginger's mother, Amy Collins.
Collins said she happened to be looking on the Rocky Spot Rescue Web site and thought she saw her dog.
"I thought, 'There's no way this dog can be on there,'" she said.
On Easter Sunday 2005, Collins and her family went to the shelter -- and sure enough, it was their long lost dog.
"They say a dog never forgets a scent, and that's how she recognized us -- by our scent -- and she just went crazy when she saw us," she said.
Ginger not only survived the tornado. She was also hit by a car and had hip surgery. Then, Collins said, someone shot her.
"Right here, she has a bullet in her back," she said.
The dog was abandoned at least once after another family adopted her, moved away and left her tied to a tree. She was also attacked by a pit bull that left scars on her face.
"She's had some miles on those feet," Collins said.
Now, Ginger has a safe place to sleep in Collins' bed. Although she can't talk, Ginger is finally breathing a big sigh of relief. Along with the buckshots in her back, Ginger also has an implanted microchip. If she does happen to get lost again, almost any veterinarian or shelter can scan her chip and bring her back home quickly.
Once again it is the wonderful fire-fighters and rescue personel who are willing to take the time to rescue someone's pet. From the Australia News:
A SMALL dog stuck in a narrow stormwater drain in suburban Melbourne has been rescued after five hours of digging.
Firefighters used spades to dig three deep holes in a rescue bid that continued until about 10pm (AEST) last night.But Barney the Jack Russell terrier was reunited with his owner only after a "massive blast" of cold air.
The Metropolitan Fire and Emergency Services Board said Barney was enjoying a walk with his owner, in Queen Street, Altona Meadows, about 5pm, when he ventured up the drainpipe in parkland behind a basketball stadium.
"From the yelps and whimpering, it was plain Barney had crawled in quite some distance, making his rescue that much harder," Commander Ken Brown said.
"Firefighters took a guess at his location and dug down about 1.5 metres to locate the pipe.
"After listening again for Barney's heartbreaking cries, they estimated the dog was about 8 metres further in and (they) made a second hole."
But that effort also failed, and Mr Brown said it appeared the dog had moved further into the pipe out of alarm at the sound of the digging.
A third hole was then dug.
"An opening was eventually made in the drain both in front of and behind Barney and a number of methods were employed to try and coax the tiny dog out of the pipe," he said.
"Finally, firefighters used a massive blast of cold air from one of their breathing apparatus cylinders and forced Barney to crawl out of the pipe and into his owners arms."
The dog was assessed at the scene by the RSPCA and found to be uninjured.
Far be it for me to poo-poo ESP and such stuff. From Contact Music:
Reality TV star PARIS HILTON credits her psychic advisor with saving the day when her beloved dog went missing.The blonde heiress was distraught when her pet pooch TINKERBELL disappeared, but one phonecall to her favourite mystic and the mutt was soon found.
The SIMPLE LIFE star, 24, says, "This woman is amazing and she's always right.
"When my dog Tinkerbell ran away, I called her, and she said Tinkerbell was in a white house with a white van in front.
"When I went to pick her up, sure enough she was in a white house with a white van outside."
The hotel heiress consults the psychic on every aspect of her life - the mysterious guide was even responsible for Hilton's decision to ditch pop hunk Aaron Carter last year.