The Poodle (and Dog) Blog

Golden Retriever is reunited with family after six years

If you don’t believe in miracles, fate, karma or coincidence, this story might change your mind.

Six years ago Cujo, an energetic seven-year-old Golden Retriever, ran away from his owners’ back yard in St. Louis when a gate was accidentally left open while they were moving. Somehow he ended up at the home of an elderly woman 120 miles away. When she went into a nursing home, Cujo, now called Willie, was sent to the Humane Society.

Even though older dogs seldom find homes, he was put on an adoption website where he was spotted by Bob Tillay, president of Dirk's Fund, a Golden Retriever Rescue group, who brought Cujo/Willy back to St. Louis. His ears were badly infected, his coat was so matted he had to be shaved, and he had some cysts removed from his eyes. Eventually he was taken to a nursing home to be a pet for the residents.

But that life seemed to be too sedentary for Cujo/Willy, He needed a yard to run in. Back he went to the Dirk’s Fund website.

Then by a fluke, last week Michael Barczewski just happened to be looking on the site. Barczewski was the breeder of Cujo, and the dog had gone to his brother’s family. He recognized him immediately by the white heart mark on his forehead and the white on his paws.

Cujo has an unusual manner of greeting people by rubbing against them like a cat and within days he was reunited with his original family.

Kayla Barczewski was only 4 years old when the dog disappeared, but she insisted on hanging his Christmas stocking every year. Now a fourth grader, she had been confident he’d someday come home. “I had something in my heart and I knew he wasn’t gone.”

Whether it’s a miracle as her mother says, or fate or just coincidence, Cujo, now a little slower and grayer at thirteen, is back to live out his life with his family and the little girl who kept hanging up his Christmas stocking.

Story source

Some dogs like to run away

No matter how well a dog is treated, no matter how devoted they are to their humans, doesn’t it just seem like some dogs have wanderlust, a low boredom level?

It doesn’t mean that they have bad owners or are poorly trained. Even expensively trained, highly disciplined police dogs have been known to escape their handlers’ yards when no one was watching.

These dogs want to explore their neighborhood, their town, or in this story, a large part of the United States: “Dog lost in Colorado, found in Tennessee.”

Daisy, a two year old twelve pound Rat Terrier, dug her way under the fence to freedom at the home of Vonda Lundstrom in Aurora, Colorado. Seven months later Tracie Crass found her trotting down the street in Knoxville, Tennessee, 1300 miles away. When no one claimed her, she called the number on the rabies license. She reached Daisy’s veterinarian who referred her to Lundstrom.

A cell phone photo from Lundstrom showed that it was indeed Daisy. With the help of the Knoxville Animal Center, Daisy flew back to Colorado where they had a joyful reunion at the airport.

Lundstrom has filled in the hole under the fence, but it might not be enough to keep Daisy in now that she has had a seven-month odyssey of hitchhiking and flying across the country. Rat Terriers are intelligent, active dogs that love to dig and have little trouble escaping to freedom.

These little dogs were originally bred to dig out and kill rats. One Rat Terrier is reported to have killed over 2,501 rats in seven hours in a rat infested barn. They seem to be happiest working on farms getting rid of vermin.

Bringing in thousands of rats for Daisy’s amusement is not too practical. The best advice I have heard for overactive dogs like Daisy is to enroll them in agility training to exercise the mind as well as the body.

80-year-old lady defends her dog against wild boar

I hope I’m as resourceful and determined as this lady when I’m 80.

In the UK Mrs. Rosemary Hamilton-Meikle was walking her dachshund, Bosum, at Buckland Monachorum when Bosum went to investigate something in the bushes. She heard a scream and rushed in to find Bosum lying on the ground in front of three wild boar. It looked as if they had tossed him and were moving in to attack.

Armed with only the leash (“I have a dog leash, and I know how to use it”), she swung it around, frightening away two of them and hit the third on the snout with the metal clasp. I’m sure this gentle lady hurled some loud epithets during her attack, but that’s just conjecture on my part. Fortunately the boar did not follow her when she picked up Bosum and walked away. The wild boar were within yards of a path often used by children.

The same day a man and his two dogs were confronted by the boar in that area. Earlier a man had reportedly climbed a tree to escape them. A taxi driver reported seeing wild boar chasing sheep near the village. Although they are not generally considered vicious, they are wild animals and they get hungry.

Why are wild boar running free in the English countryside? In the past year animal activists have twice released large numbers of these animals from a farm to run loose. Not all of them have been recaptured.

Thank you, animal terrorists, for endangering humans, pets and those unfortunate, innocent animals you “liberated.”

Full story from The Guardian

The tale of a dog, her tail, and her ghostwriter who saved her life

Thanks to Sam for sending this story.

When Arnette Garrison was transferred from the road department to Animal Services, she never dreamed that she would become a ghostwriter for a dog who needed a new home.

A Levy County, FL resident had brought Lucy into the animal shelter where Arnette had started working. Lucy had been found starving and abandoned and then had lost part of her tail when she was hit by a car. The animal shelter has a policy of trying to find homes for every animal it can, including posting photos and stories on the Internet.

So Arnette wrote Lucy’s story and sent it Petfinder.com. (It's always listed in my sidebar.) This was her first effort at persuasive writing, not something she had needed in any previous job or while earning her GED several years ago.

This is what she wrote:

"I see people walk past my kennel and turn me down because my tail is still not healed. I keep it clean, I just can't take myself to a doctor to get a stitch or two! PLEASE, if you can find it in your heart to come save my life, and get me a stitch for my tail, I know you will love me, but most of all, I Will Love You!!!"

Within minutes people started to respond with offers to help the Labrador-Boxer mix with money for veterinarian treatment and airfare to a new home.

After several days at the Veterinarian Clinic, Lucy’s tail had healed enough to make the cross-country flight to Yakima, Washington. Jean Williamson, a high school teacher and active animal rescue volunteer, had agreed to help Lucy find a permanent home.

Williamson took the day off school to drive 3 ½ hours to the Seattle airport to pick her up. “I'm glad I did,” she said. “Lucy didn't choose to have bad things happen to her but I guess now she really is a lucky dog because we will find her a good home."

Complete story

Veteran and stolen dog reunited after 700 mile odyssey

Bliss Green, a 79 year old veteran, will have a happy Thanksgiving this year after a successful search for his companion dog across western United States. The search for his stolen car and missing dog involved law enforcement officials in five states for three weeks and ended 700 miles away from where they were stolen, according to a story in the Washington Post.

Melody, a Border Collie mix, has been his companion dog for the last 11 years after he was admitted to a VA hospital for depression and suicidal tendencies. While he and Melody were heading home to Oregon after visiting his daughter in Chicago, Green’s car was stolen on November 3 at a gas station in York, Nebraska.

Melody and Green’s cell phone were in the car. Police tracked the cell phone as it was used through Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho and Oregon. Finally the authorities arrested the suspect in Oregon.

Meanwhile a couple in Wyoming found Melody huddled under their pickup. They fed her for a week thinking she might belong to someone in the neighborhood. Finally they took her to a shelter.

Authorities were able to connect Melody to Green when some of his personal belongs from the car were found nearby. When he got the news he’d been hoping for, Green put her bed in his car and immediately headed out to pick her up.

While he was hospitalized 11 years ago, a nurse gave him a hand written prescription for a companion dog to cure his depression. "I haven't been depressed since I've had her," he said.

Have you hugged your dog (or cat) today?

South African dog masters public transit--sort of

A couple of times a week, Ratty would stroll down the street, catch a bus, get off at the right stop, and go into the Black Bull Pub.
There the barmaid fed him sausages. Ratty is a terrier.

But then the Black Bull Pub went upscale, and animals, including Ratty, were banned from the premises. Not to be thwarted, Ratty crossed the road and found a new pub. Now he is turning up at the Rose and Crown pub. But he has never been able to find the right bus that will take him home.

His owner Gary Kay doesn’t seem to be amused. He has no idea how Ratty is doing all this and why he can’t seem to find his way home, but he is having to chain Ratty to keep him off the bus and out of the pub.

“This dog just has a mind of his own," he said.

Could Ratty be the Rainman of dogs?

The story

After three years in a cage "Ghost" finds a home

The dog they called Ghost didn’t have much going for him in his life. He started out as just another mutt, an accidental mix of Shepherd and Rottweiler. When he was only eight months old he was found with a wire around his mid-section that was so tight it had to be surgically removed. He was named Ghost because white hair had grown in on his surgical scar.

So he had to spend what was left of his cute puppy stage recuperating in a cage with special food and rest when he should have been socialized and living with a family that loved him. For three years he sat in his cage with little chance of adoption.

But he had some good luck too. He had been rescued by the Humane Society of Akron and not sent to the pound. There was a cage available for him when he was brought in. The workers housebroke him, crate trained him and gave him affection, hoping that someday he would find someone who would want him.

And then Ted Moore came into his life, looking for another dog to adopt. In February he had adopted another formerly abused dog from the Humane Society. “The first two weeks were a challenge,” he said. Then ”she became a model citizen.”

Ghost reacted the way he always did to strangers, shy and distrustful, but Moore saw something in him that no one else had.

At first “the Rottweiler came out in him,” Moore said. “They don’t always present themselves as good companions.” But he could see that the dog called Ghost was eager to be a good dog. He was housebroken and crate trained so Moore didn’t have to worry about the dog taking apart his home.

Ghost, now called Jonas, has found his home at last as a calm and loving friend.

Akron Beacon Journal

Dog starts fire with electric range—twice

What are the chances of a dog setting a kitchen fire by jumping up on an electric range and turning on a burner?

That’s just what Victoria, a Doberman Pinscher from Vancouver, Washington did, not once but twice. The first fire was minor, but the second about a week later happened when the owner, Caroline Wheeler, was not home. This fire gutted the apartment and caused about a hundred thousand dollars worth of damage.

Fire fighters were able to rescue Victoria and another dog named Wiley.

Since the stove is a total loss, Wheeler is considering replacing it one that is harder for a dog to turn on.

Seems like a good plan.

The story

Fishing couple catch drowning dog

After hours of fishing on Florida Bay, Ray Truche Jr. and Lisa Largrassa hadn’t caught any fish. Suddenly their boat hit something. When they turned around to check they saw a “fat little dog.”

Truche said, “It was having trouble keeping its head above water. Its big eyes were looking at us. It was almost as if it was saying 'Don't leave me here!'" They quickly pulled in their only catch of the day, a 5-year-old Cairn Terrier named Tigger.

Earlier it seems Tigger had been thrown from the boat of his owners, Diane and Richard Beckman. For 2 1/2 hours they searched, until finally they gave up, thinking Tigger couldn’t have survived in the water for that long.

They were heartbroken until they reached home and heard the message from the animal shelter where Tigger had been taken. Diane reported that when she picked him up, “He was terrified. As soon as he realized it was me, he jumped in my arms and wouldn't let go.”

The story from Fox News didn’t mention whether Tigger was wearing a doggy life jacket. These are available for dogs, costing from around $20 for dogs up to 18 pounds to $40 for dogs over 70 pounds. Dogs are instinctive swimmers, but a dog flotation vest will keep them buoyant and make them easier to spot in the water.

Lost dog is returned from 1400 miles away, thanks to a microchip

No one will ever know how a small white terrier named Kobe got from his home in Bellflower, California to Denton, Texas. Traveling the 1400 miles must have been quite an adventure for the little guy over the past month.

What we do know is that thanks to a microchip implanted when he was adopted from an animal shelter, he is now back with his family.

AVID, the manufacturer of the chip, flew Kobe back to California.

The story