Ace, a young pup being trained to be a guide dog, got an obedience lesson from a very famous dog during a December visit to Disneyland.
In a viral video with nearly 10.7 million views as of this afternoon, Ace can be seen assuming the down position at Pluto’s command.
“We went to Disneyland for a few hours as a socialization experience,” Sandy Steinblums, who raised Ace as a volunteer with Guide Dogs of America, wrote on Facebook. “What you didn’t see AFTER the 14-15 second video where he settled in a DOWN was his DOWN/STAY for a few minutes while Pluto tried to break his stay.”
Steinblums was too far away from Ace “to do a proper correction, but golly-be….he responded anyway,” she wrote.
Ace began his formal training at the end of January. It will take six to nine months of working with licensed trainers before he’s ready to graduate and become someone’s guide dog.
“That is my boy and I am proud of him, and love the Disney characters for being so kind and helpful!” Steinblums wrote.
For the second year in a row, to celebrate the big game this Sunday — yep, Puppy Bowl XII — Uber is teaming up with Animal Planet to deliver adoptable puppies Wednesday in seven U.S. cities.
For $30, Uber drivers and rescue representatives will deliver puppies for 15 minutes of play time during the #UberPuppyBowl event. And that’s not all — the entire $30 is donated to the rescue that supplied the puppies.
Just make sure your boss or building is okay with hosting a quarter-hour of puppy goodness. And be sure to have an enclosed space or a room available in which to play with the puppies.
In the very likely event that you fall in love with one of the puppies, the rescue representative will be happy to get you started on the adoption process. During the debut of #UberPuppyBowl last year, more than 70 of puppies found forever homes (including Pepper Jack, the itty bitty Pittie in the photo above).
Playdates are available Feb. 3 between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. The participating cities this year are Chicago; Denver; Los Angeles/Orange County; New York; Phoenix; San Francisco/San Jose; and Washington, D.C.
To request a puppy delivery — and do realize the demand will be high, so be very patient — open the Uber app and select the “Puppies” option.
Just three months ago, George and Amal Clooney made news headlines for adopting a 4-year-old Basset Hound named Millie from the San Gabriel Valley Humane Society in Southern California. The couple didn’t even send one of their people to pick up Millie after they fell in love with her picture and story on Petfinder — they went to the shelter in person (bringing along their rescue dog Louie), much to the delight of employees and visitors.
“It definitely added to the excitement on one of our busiest afternoons when we do vaccinations for the public,” shelter spokeswoman Lynn Collmann told the Huffington Post.
Now another lucky shelter dog is in a forever home, thanks to George Clooney.
Nate, a scruffy terrier with birth defects who was rescued from a hoarding situation, was having a really difficult time getting adopted from LuvFurMutts Animal Rescue in Fairfield, Ohio.
“When we took Nate to adoption events, people would stare and kids would point,” the rescue wrote on its website. “Several people applied to adopt him but then said no when they met him. … The lowest point came when an adopter cried when she met him and said she would be depressed the rest of her life if she had to look at him every day.”
LuvFurMutts saw Nate as “a handsome, charming, sweet and normal little boy” — and so did Clooney.
A beloved 10-year-old terrier belonging to his parents, Nick and Nina Clooney, died last year. After viewing Nate’s video, Clooney thought the dog would make a perfect Christmas present for the couple.
“What is impressive is the fact that George picked Nate out, and Nick and Nina accepted Nate just the way he is,” wrote LuvFurMutts. “They could have any dog in the world, but they chose to adopt a dog who was crippled and could have been with LuvFurMutts for life.”
Not only did Clooney adopt Nate, but he also made a donation to LuvFurMutts to cover the cost of the dog’s previous surgeries.
Nate was delivered to Clooney’s parents on Christmas Eve by Carol Roberts, founder of LuvFurMutts.
“To say we were startled would be an understatement,” Nick Clooney told radio station WCPO, adding that it seemed more like Nate adopted them rather than vice versa.
“A wonderful way to find a certain part of your life completed in a way that cannot be touched in any other fashion,” said Nate’s new dog dad.
Nate “will be spoiled to death for the rest of his life,” LuvFurMutts wrote. “From fighting to get food in his belly each day to being the only fur baby of two of the most wonderful people in Augusta, Ky.
“It’s truly a fairy tale ending for Prince Nate…or should we say, a perfect Hollywood movie ending!”
To make a donation to help LuvFurMutts save more dogs, click here.
April Hamlin let her Bloodhound, Ludivine, out in her Elkmont, Ala., backyard the morning of Jan. 18 to take a potty break.
Or so Hamlin thought.
Two-year-old Ludivine (she was named after a character in the movie “A Good Year”) somehow managed to escape from the yard and then wandered to the starting line of Elkmont’s first-ever Trackless Train Trek Half Marathon.
Ludivine ran the 13.1 miles in about 92 minutes, finishing in seventh place.
Meanwhile, Hamlin must have assumed Ludivine was just hanging out in the backyard all that time. Imagine her surprise when someone texted her a photo of her dog wearing a medal that was awarded to everyone who finished the race.
“My first reaction was that I was embarrassed and worried she had possibly gotten in the way of the other runners,” Hamlin told Runner’s World.
Ludivine likes to wander the town on her own, Hamlin said, and most of the local residents know her. What surprised her was that Ludivine actually finished a 13.1-mile race.
“She’s laid back and friendly, so I can’t believe she ran the whole half marathon because she’s actually really lazy,” Hamlin told Runner’s World.
Ludivine’s running buddy for much of the marathon was Tim Horvath, who assumed the friendly Bloodhound belonged to someone in the race.
“She came bouncing up, and I petted her on the head,” he told Runner’s World. “I saw her collar, so I just figured she was somebody’s dog. Elkmont is a small town where everyone knows everybody, so it didn’t strike me as unusual.”
Ludivine had some distractions during the race. Horvath said that at one point, she went over to meet another dog near the course. “Later on, she went into a field with some mules and cows,” he told Runner’s World. “Then she’d come back and run around our legs. I wondered if she was going to get tired or go back to wherever her home was.”
Jim Clemons, a runner who finished in fourth place, told Runner’s World the Bloodhound “would run off to romp through streams and into yards to sniff around for a while.”
Hamlin said that once she got over the shock, she was happy for Ludivine’s accomplishment. The purpose of the half-marathon was to raise money to buy equipment and pay race fees for Elkmont High School’s cross-country and track-and-field teams.
“Because of this dog, they are getting so much publicity, and I think that’s the best part,” she told Runner’s World.
The director of the half-marathon, Gretta Armstrong, told Canadian Running, “Our little town (population: 500) is getting a kick out of the story ‘going international!'”
“On Jan. 23 I’ll mark two years without my best friend,” wrote Chris Sontag-Ratti, of Hayward, Calif., in a post last night on his @imso Instagram account.
The best friend he’s referring to was a 12-year-old Boxer/Rottweiler mix named Everything (is that a great name or what?), who he’d had since she was just a puppy.
To honor Everything’s memory on the second anniversary of her death, Sontag-Ratti purchased 100 tennis balls and is mailing them to everyone who requests one.
“I wanted to share her memory, but in a positive way — to encourage other people to bond with their dogs,” he told Mashable. “This was the best way I could think to do that. No matter what day, in my head there is always the equation of how many days I have been without her.”
Sontag-Ratti thought he would be stuck with a lot of tennis balls, but the response has been overwhelming.
“Wow, I am blown away by the requests for tennis balls,” he wrote later on the Instagram post. “Going to have to buy some more now.”
As of Monday afternoon, the Instagram post has more than 8,000 likes.
A photo posted by Futuristic Mega Monstrosity (@imso) on
Sontag-Ratti adopted Everything in 2002. “My uncle’s dog had puppies and I decided I wanted one,” he told ABC News. “My uncle gave me first pick of the litter. Out of all the puppies, Everything was the standout. First to the food, first to greet me, she was such a sweet puppy.”
He said one of his and Everything’s favorite things to do during their 12 years together was to walk along the beaches in Santa Cruz and Half Moon Bay. His original idea was to leave a box of tennis balls on the beach, but he later decided against it.
“It has been very rainy here in California recently, and the balls and note would have gotten wet, or maybe even not be found due to people avoiding the beach on rainy days,” Sontag-Ratti told ABC News.
Other pet parents have had similar ideas, leaving boxes filled with tennis balls where beloved pups, like Phoebe and Aubrie, once played.
But sending tennis balls to strangers seems to be a novel (and generous) idea. Sontag-Ratti told ABC News he’s received requests from as far away as Australia, Ireland and Japan.
“I have a ton of emails in my box,” he said. “Yesterday I was thinking I wasn’t going to be able to get rid of all the balls I purchased. Today I’m trying to figure out how I can afford to buy some more. … I’m blown away, really.”
Sontag-Ratti promised he would “do his best” to fulfill all the requests, although it may be a bit financially straining for the electrician apprentice with a modest income. “I was planning on spending my entire paycheck this week on shipping, but looks like I’ll have to use next week’s check, too,” he told ABC News. (I have a feeling there might soon be a crowdfunding campaign to help Sontag-Ratti purchase more tennis balls and pay those international shipping costs.)
Not that he minds spending the money.
“I would spend my last dollar if it helped keep the memory of my Everything alive,” Sontag-Ratti said, adding that sending out all those tennis balls will help him get through the second anniversary of Everything’s death.
“I would like to say thank you to everyone for the support and kind words,” he told ABC News.
“She was literally my Everything.”
If you’d like a tennis ball, send an email to Sontag-Ratti at chubbywater@gmail.com.
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