Category: Awww

Dog Taking a Potty Break Ends Up Finishing Half Marathon

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!'”

Photos via Facebook

California Man Sends Strangers Tennis Balls in Memory of His Beloved Dog

“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.

Photos: Instagram; Imgur; Imgur

The Sweetest Trick: Border Collie Hugs Her German Shepherd BFF [Video]

Lottie, a 2-year-old Border Collie from Ontario, Canada, is “very much a normal dog,” according to her dog mom, Taylor Duguay.

“Lottie isn’t perfect,” Duguay told ABC News. “I’ll be the first to admit she’s like every other dog. She barks when someone comes to the door, she’s chewed a roll of paper towels and she likes spending her days taking naps.”

But there’s one special thing Lottie can do that a lot of other dogs probably cannot: She can hug her best friend, a 2-year-old German Shepherd named Grizzly.

Although Duquay has taught Lottie more than 250 tricks, hugging Grizzly was not one of them. The Border Collie, who competes in dog sports like Frisbee and dock diving, spontaneously started doing it.

“At first Grizzly wasn’t sure what was going on,” Duquay told the Daily Mail. “Now when I ask Lottie who her best friend is, you can even catch Grizzly getting ready for the hug and leaning into her.”

Duguay adopted Lottie when she was 4 months old. A year later, she rescued Grizzly from the streets when the German Shepherd was just a 7-week-old puppy.

“As far as their relationship together, it’s something out of a storybook,” Duquay told the Daily Mail. “Lottie is convinced Grizzly is her own pup. From day one she treated him with love and care.”

Last week, Duquay posted a video on Vine of Lottie hugging Grizzly, with the description, “Who’s your best friend?” As of this afternoon, it’s been viewed by nearly 38 million people.

“Lottie has a knack for doing tricks and she loves nothing more than performing for crowds,” Duguay told ABC News. “In my eyes, Lottie is a super dog.”

Super duper!

Photo via Vine

Dog Helps Save Life of Stranded Sea Turtle

A 2-year-old Newfoundland named Veda happened to be in the right place at the right time Monday morning.

Veda was walking ahead of her pet parents along the beach in Plymouth, Mass., when she spotted a stranded loggerhead sea turtle that was almost hidden in the same-colored sand, seaweed and debris that had washed ashore during an storm the day before.

Leah and Brad Bares wondered why their dog suddenly stopped and lay down in the sand.

“It was something she had never seen,” Leah told the Boston Globe. “That’s just the nature of a Newfoundland … instincts that it needed to be saved or helped.”

If Veda hadn’t found the sea turtle, it would have died within a few hours. The temperature was in the 20s, much too cold for a loggerhead to survive.

The Bares told the Boston Globe they “freaked out” at first when they saw the turtle. They covered it with seaweed to help keep it warm and made some cell-phone calls.

Soon William Gray, a volunteer with the Mass Audubon Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary, arrived and helped the couple carry the 40-pound sea turtle off the beach. He brought it to the New England Aquarium’s off-site Animal Care Center in Quincy, Mass.

“This sea turtle coming ashore on January 11 is the latest to ever strand alive so late in the winter in the aquarium’s 25-year effort to rehabilitate cold-stunned sea turtles off the Massachusetts coast,” the aquarium said in a press release today. “Besides the late date, this turtle was unusual as it was found on the South Shore versus Cape Cod, where 99 percent of the strandings occur.”

After four days of slowly being re-warmed, the sea turtle’s body temperature has been raised from 30 degrees to a closer-to-normal 70 degrees.

“The animal is bright and alert with a guarded but promising prognosis,” the aquarium said.

Aquarium spokesman Tony LeCasse told the Boston Globe, “We were very lucky. If that dog hadn’t seen that sea turtle … they probably would have never noticed.”

The lucky loggerhead has been named Newfie in honor of its rescuer.

“Each year aquarium rescue staff name many of the sea turtles after a particular theme, such as cartoon characters or constellations,” the aquarium noted. “Strangely enough, this year’s naming theme is dog breeds.”

Another strange — and very cool — coincidence: Veda’s dog mom is an artist, and one of her most popular works is a watercolor painting of a loggerhead turtle. Leah donates 20 percent of the proceeds from each sale to the non-profit National Marine Life Center in Bourne, Mass.

“There’s some people in the neighborhood who are against dogs on the beach,” Leah told the Boston Globe, “but this is all the more reason to keep bringing her on walks.”

Photos: New England Aquarium

Dog Who Went Missing During California Wildfire Reunites with Family 4 Months Later

When the devastating Valley Fire wildfire swept through Northern California in September, destroying more than 1,200 houses, Darci Andrews was out of town. Not only did she lose her Hidden Valley home, but she also lost her pets who were locked inside the house, including Tia, a 7-year-old Siberian Husky/Pit Bull mix.

Or so Andrews thought.

In December, three months after the wildfire, Tyler Wages found a lost dog in the woods not far from Andrews’ former home. He spent the next month leaving food out for the scared dog and trying to lure her to him with treats.

Wages was finally able to coax the dog into his house last week. She was wearing an ID tag with Andrews’ name on it, but the landline phone number was no longer working due to the house being destroyed.

Wages didn’t give up. He used Facebook to track Andrews down where she worked, Twin Pines Casino, and gave her a call.

“He said she kind of looked like a wolf, with one blue eye and a blue collar. I started crying,” Andrews told the Press Democrat.

She rushed over to Wages’ house. “I go inside and they bring out my Tia. I started bawling!” Andrews told ABC News. “She came up to me, wagging her tail, and licked my face.”

Every day for the past four months, Andrews said her boyfriend, Bernie Hosmer, would return to her property “and sift through the ashes to see if he could find the remains” of her pets. He did find the remains of another dog, Bosko, who was inside a kennel cage, but there was no sign of Tia and another dog, or of Andrews’ other pets, two cats and two rats.

“I created this flyer and posted it up. I posted their pictures on all of the Facebook sites. We chased down every lead,” Andrews told ABC News. “It would break our hearts every single time.”

Andrews, her adult daughters and Hosmer were about to give up hope. One of Andrews’ daughters got a tattoo of Tia in her beloved dog’s memory, and they both gave their mom a Pit Bull puppy named Layla to help lessen the pain of the loss.

“If somebody thinks there’s a chance their pet is still out there, they shouldn’t give up,” Andrews told the Press Democrat.

Considering her ordeal, Tia is doing remarkably well, according to her veterinarian, Joanna Holtz. Tia lost weight and suffered some minor burns, but is otherwise doing fine.

Holtz told the Press Democrat a few other pets were reunited with their owners after the Valley Fire, but none after such a long time as Tia. And Tia is the only pet she knows of who somehow managed to escape out of a locked house.

“Tia was out there for 116 days. She made it out of a burning house, out of a burning neighborhood,” Andrews told ABC News. “She’s our own personal little miracle.”

And as for Tia’s rescuer, Andrews said Wages is her hero. “I can’t believe what he did for us,” she told the Press Democrat.

Photo via Twitter

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