Mountaintop Natural Pets

Source: AFP.com, August 30,2010

TARQUINIA, Italy — This summer, Italy’s special squad of rescue workers were again chalking up success: some 300 dogs ready to help save lives on dozens of Italian beaches.

In early August in Tarquinia, a town about 100 kilometers (60 miles) north of Rome, the dogs and their human partners saved on the same day two girls, who had fallen off their boat and two others, who had fallen off an inflatable raft.

The labradors, golden retrievers and Newfoundlands trained by the Italian School for Rescue Dogs (http://www.waterrescuedogs.com/) are credited with saving more than 100 lives, including a dozen this year alone.

“Compared to the rest of the world, the school is the only one that systematically monitors beaches every summer with human-canine units,” Roberto Gasbarri, the school’s coordinator for central-southern Italy, told AFP.

The teams work in most of Italy’s 20 regions, even landlocked ones such as northern Trentino Alto-Adige, where rescuers monitor lakes.

Their school, financed by local governments like regions and municipalities, is recognised by Italy’s civil protection and coordinated by local coast guards around the country.

“It’s been five years now that we’ve been relying on the school,” said Lamberto Alessandro, the head of the coastguard in Tarquinia.

“Their help is very valuable to us and they are absolutely trustworthy,” he said, as dogs in lifejackets leapt off boats for practice runs.

“The five tests to get the license are pretty difficult. You need to swim almost as fast as your dog, which is not as easy as it sounds,” said Paola de Santis, 36, who began training this year with her five-year-old lab Teo.

The rescuer certificate for dogs and owners requires one year of training both on the ground and on water, and the teams must train and pass tests each year before the summer season.

The next training round is set to start in mid-September.

Techniques include beach starts with lifesaver in hand or sea rescues from a raft or a helicopter.

“We developed a special system that can allow us to save three people at a time,” Gasbarri said. “The (human) rescuer ties two people to the dog and is then free to take care of the third person,” Gasbarri said.

“That way we avoid tiring back-and-forths,” he added.

For lifeguards, the most dangerous moment in the rescue is bringing back the victim.

In this phase, “the dog is a real engine that helps bring the person back even if he or she resists or is agitated,” Gasbarri said.

Gasbarri said the dogs are never scared of the water and tides as for them, rescues and training are much like a game.

“There are some very dangerous areas, … and when there are large waves and a strong current, only a dog can intervene since, unlike humans, they don’t feel fear in dangerous situations,” said Mauro Mazzola, the mayor of Tarquinia.

The golden retrievers, labradors and Newfoundlands that the school recruits are docile and calm animals and their physical characteristics make them better rescuers.
“They are better swimmers than others because their coat lets out water quickly and they have webbed paws, which allows them to push water behind them and swim faster than other dogs,” de Santis said as her dog Teo shook the water off his coat in apparent approval.
After rescues, especially for children, a dog is a calming presence.

“The patting, kisses and play really help lessen the child’s shock after the danger,” Gasbarri said.

Source: newsoxy.com, July 5, 2010

A scuba-diving dog was trained by his owner in Russia. Dachshund Boniface is the first dog to professionally enjoy scuba-diving in the world. The dog loves the water and enjoys diving on the Pacific coast.

Boniface’s owner, Sergey Gorbunov, is a professional diver in the city of Vladivostok. Initially, Sergey noticed that Boniface felt a little discomfort and tried to come out of his helmet when he was taken into the water. However, as time passed, he began to enjoy his teaching sessions. He even grew accustom to his wet suit and helmet.

Once in the water, the dachshund made high pitched protracted sounds as he learned how to dive from his master. “Boniface used to be nervous upon witnessing him diving into the water and that had triggered the idea in his mind to teach his dog scuba diving,” Sergey Gorbunov said in a statement. “Underwater he did not think that his dog experienced any stress,” he added.

Boniface’s first professional dive was at the depth of 2 meters. His owner hopes that he will be able to teach him even greater personal achievements. The duo dives in the Pacific Ocean on a beach near the settlement of Slavyanka.

Source: Fox59.com, May 18, 2010

A coroner says an Ohio woman suffered a heart attack before collapsing in her driveway while bringing in the pet Rottweiler that was destroyed after being blamed for mauling her to death.

Cuyahoga County Coroner Frank Miller said Tuesday that there were few dog bites on 63-year-old Carolyn Baker of Cleveland Heights, who died in February. He says there were signs of pawing, showing that “the dog was trying to help her.”

Baker had gone outside in a nightgown to bring in the 140-pound dog named Zeus. Miller says hypothermia also contributed to the death of Baker, who was outdoors for several hours before a neighbor heard the animal barking.

Baker’s family had believed the 9-year-old dog was trying to rescue her.

The Cleveland Municipal Court ordered the dog destroyed in April.

Source: TBO.com, April 5, 2010

A 1-year-old puppy-size bundle of fur is credited with alerting a sleeping family to fire spreading through their Clearwater home early this morning.

The incessant barking of the family’s Shih Tzu, Scooter, awoke the family and gave them time to escape a fire that started in a vehicle parked in the driveway of their home on Byram Drive.

“She woke us up. She started barking,” said Roberto Segovia, 18-year-old son of homeowners Ocsar and Celsa Segovia.

“The dog usually barks and we were just like minding our own business, but she kept on barking until we woke up just to see what’s happening,” he said as friends and neighbors helped board up the home severely damaged by the fire.

His father saw the glow of flames and got the rest of the family moving to safety.

All three people along with Scooter were outside when firefighters arrived about 5:30 a.m., Clearwater Fire and Rescue said.

The fire started in a 2001 Ford Expedition in the driveway parked about 4 feet from the house and spread to the attic, the fire department said. It took firefighters about 40 minutes to put out the flames.

The car was not running, though the family used it the day before, Roberto Segovia said. It ran fine then.

Firefighters had to pull down parts of the ceiling to get at flames roaring through the attic. The interior is a shambles with ash, ruined ceiling material and water, Roberto Segovia said.

The house in uninhabitable and the American Red Cross is helping the family find a place to live.

Roberto Segovia described the family pet firefighters hailed as a hero as a tiny furball.

“It’s just all fur,” he said. “It moves.”

Source: azcentral.com, April 6, 2010

Kay Harrison figured there was some kind of trouble when her dog, Sammy, started barking and wouldn’t stop outside her place in Tonopah.

Harrison said she stepped out to see what was going on, and the dog jumped in front of her, blocking her from taking another step. Harrison said she heard a rattle and leaned to see a rattlesnake in a flower bed by the door.

“She saved my life,” Harrison said of her 8-year-old Catahoula. “She got between me and the snake.

Warmer weather means venomous snakes and other poisonous creatures are getting more active after winter hibernation.

The Arizona Game and Fish Department says people need to be more vigilant.

“You just need to watch where you put your hands and feet,” said Thomas R. Jones, the agency’s amphibians and reptiles program manager.

The snake bit Sammy on the head. Harrison thinks it happened when she turned to yell for help. The dog immediately got lethargic and suffered acute pain. Harrison could hardly get her into a Jeep for the trip to the veterinarian.

Swelling eventually closed one of her eyes, but Sammy made it. The dog goes home today after about five days in a Buckeye veterinary clinic.

Wally Wass, a veterinarian who works part-time in the clinic, said the dog probably would not have survived without the snake-bite vaccine he got last summer.

Source: Komonews.com, March 21, 2010

A car-jacking suspect messed with the wrong vehicle Friday night in a Kirkland parking lot.

A pit bull rescued earlier from an illegal dog-fighting ring was sitting inside in the car – and that dog wasn’t taking any more passengers.

The dog’s foster mom, Amber Melena, explains what happened.

She says Victor the pit bull was due to be put down a few months ago after he and more than 20 other dogs were found living in horrific conditions – beaten, forced to fight and chained inside filthy kennels.

But a dedicated rescue group believed this dog could be saved and – after months of rehabilitation – placed him with Amber and her family.

On Friday night, Victor had a chance to return the favor in a grocery parking lot.

Amber says she stopped by the store on a routine shopping trip and brought 3-year-old Victor along for the ride.

“I opened the door like this and put the groceries in,” she says.

“I was just reaching for my seatbelt, and right as I was turning to click it in, this door flew open. And he was just standing right there.”

Amber found herself face-to-face with a possible car-jacker. The man spooked Victor, too – but the dog was quick to act.

“He turns around and lets out just this gigantic woof,” says Amber. “And this man throws himself backwards, trips on himself and falls down.”

Police later arrested the man. And thanks to Victor, Amber wasn’t hurt.

She says Victor still bears the battle scars from being routinely beaten and forced to fight before he was saved last October from a dog-fighting ring in Graham.

“He’s got tears inside his ears; his biggest one is the lip. This lip is supposed to be attached, not kind of poking out,” Amber says.

Bullseye Dog Rescue and other shelter workers put the dogs through months of rehabilitation. Ultimately, most had to be put down.

“They didn’t make it. They had some various behavioral problems … because of the victims that they were, the cruelty they endured,” says Lorrie Kalmbach of Bullseye Dog Rescue.

Victor was the exception – and Amber says he proved himself exceptional against the car-jacker.

She’d keep him if she could, but for now has agreed to be his foster mom until he can be placed.

“Bullseye has given him a second chance. I think he might have given me a second chance. He’s definitely my hero,” she says.

Victor and two other pit bulls named Hope and Phoenix have gone through months of rehabilitation and are ready and willing to be adopted into a good home.

Source: OregonLive.com, Mar 7, 2010

The story of the man, his dog and the lost and found began on a spring day two years ago near an open field in Chicago.

Roger Mallette  was playing with his black lab, Ike, when his cell phone buzzed. Mallette turned around, took the call and Ike took off.

“It was extremely painful,” Mallette said Sunday at his office in Southeast Portland. “I never got over it.”

For the longest time, it seemed to Mallette the story would end right there and he’d never see Ike again. It seemed like all he could do was nurse his broken heart and tell friends about the dog that got away. But then, late last year, Mallette got a phone call and the whole story changed.

Mallette, who is 45,  found Ike on Craigslist in 2004 when he lived in Seattle. He went to pick him up and found his new friend in a muddy backyard, bounding around, full of energy. This did not bode well.

Ike is a runner. If he’s not on a leash, he’ll sniff around and take off. Mallette estimates that in their first few months together, Ike ran away five or six times.

But Mallette always managed to find his dog. He gave Ike a rabies tag and had a microchip implanted between Ike’s shoulder blades, both of which identified Mallette as his owner.

Together, in early 2007,  Ike and Mallette moved to Chicago. It was there, in spring 2008, when Mallette took that fateful cell phone call.

He’d taken Ike off the leash to play ball with him in a grassy lot. One minute, Ike was running around, chasing the ball. The next minute: gone.

Mallette put up fliers and placed an ad on Craigslist. No luck. He eventually gave up, too distraught to get another dog.

In late 2008, Mallette moved to Portland. He owns and operates a company that makes cycling jerseys and he wanted to be in the sport’s epicenter.

This is where he met his fiance, Elizabeth Everman.  He told her all about Ike.

“I’d heard all these stories about him,” said Everman. “Roger, whenever we saw a lab, would almost tear up.”

That’s where the story stood in early December, 2009.

Then early one morning, when Mallette was asleep, he got a phone call. It was a woman from a dog shelter southwest of Chicago. She had Ike, she said on the voice mail. Call us back.

“I about fell out of bed,” Mallette said. “I was in utter disbelief. I was so caught-off-guard I was hoarse. I could barely talk.”

Apparently, Ike had run away again and someone in Romeoville, Ill., southwest of Chicago, called the animal control department. An officer came and picked Ike up.

After the microchip and the rabies tag confirmed that Mallette was the owner, Mary Helton gave him a call from the shelter.

“He started crying,” Helton recalled.

With help from a friend, Mallette had Ike flown to Portland several days later.

Now when he tells the story about his dog, it has a happy ending.

“I have to say man, it’s the coolest thing,” Mallette said. “The greatest gift the universe has ever given me.”

Source: FoxNews.com, Feb 25, 2010

A Virginia couple has been reunited with their missing German shepherd, which somehow made its way to Florida.

Pamela Holt lives in Stuart, Va., and says she thought the phone call from an animal control officer in Florida was a “mean trick.” Then she realized the man really had found her missing pet, Deacon, hundreds of miles from home.

The dog hadn’t been seen since December. Holt and her husband eventually decided the dog must have died.

According to police reports, a convenience store clerk saw Deacon and another dog running in traffic last week in Deland, Fla. The clerk called authorities and the dogs were taken to a kennel.

Deacon had an implanted microchip, which helped track down the Holts. The Virginia couple have made the more than 600-mile trip to pick him up.