Category: Awww

Arf Aboard! Elderly Man Builds Train for His Rescued Dogs [Video]

Not only have 80-year-old Eugene Bostick and his 87-year-old brother Corky rescued every dog who’s been dumped on their dead-end street in Fort Worth, Texas, but Eugene hand-built a train for his nine former strays and takes them on a 90-minute ride around town twice every week.

Photos and a video of the dog train in action are going viral.

“I started out with my tractor. I had a little trailer and I put four or five dogs in there and took them riding,” Eugene told NBC DFW last year. “Then more dogs started to show up and I said, ‘Uh-oh! That’s not enough room!’”

He got the inspiration for the train after he saw a tractor with carts attached to carry rocks.

“I thought, ‘Dang, that would do for a dog train,’” Eugene told The Dodo this week. “I’m a pretty good welder, so I took these plastic barrels with holes cut in them, and put wheels under them and tied them together.”

The passengers “bark a lot. Then they get tired and just stop and look around,” Eugene told NBC DFW.

The Bostick brothers have lived on their 13-acre property for more than 70 years.

“People sometimes come by and dump dogs out here, leaving them to starve,” Eugene told The Dodo. “So, we started feeding them, letting them in, taking them to the vet to get them spayed and neutered. We made a place for them to live.”

Corky told NBC DFW he’s been feeding the wildlife for over 30 years, “and I’m going to live another 30. My wife said if I didn’t get up and do this, I’d be dead. And I really would.”

As for Eugene, he said he’ll be driving the dog train for as long as he can.

Here’s hoping these amazing brothers really do live at least another 30 years.

Photo via Facebook

Reporter Reunites Senior Lab with Elderly Dog Dad after California Wildfire

As the so-called Valley Fire wildfire raced toward his Lower Lake, Calif., home six days ago, 76-year-old Lawrence Ross had little time to evacuate.

He grabbed what he could, but had to leave behind his senior Black Lab, Thumper.

“I think my house is okay, but I don’t know, and my dog is there, and my goats and horses and alpacas,” Ross tearfully told Associated Press reporter Brian Skoloff yesterday at an evacuation center.

“My dog, my dog.”

Ross said he’d had a nightmare that his house was burning down, “and I could hear her screaming as she burned.”

Skoloff asked Ross to show him where his house was on a map. The reporter then drove 10 miles, past burned terrain and downed power lines, to the address. He couldn’t believe what he saw.

The grounds around the house were burned, but the house was still standing.

“Two horses grazed on hay in the yard. The alpacas stared at me from their pen. Goats scurried about like nothing had happened,” Skoloff wrote. “But there was no sign of Thumper.”

For an hour, Skoloff walked around the property, calling out Thumper’s name. The dog finally appeared, covered in soot and wagging her tail. She had been hiding in a crawlspace under the house.

“She leaped into my lap, licked my face, then rolled over on her back as I rubbed her belly and I cried,” Skoloff wrote.

“‘Good girl, Thumper!’ I kept telling her. ‘You made it!'”

There were more tears when the reporter called Ross to tell him the good news.

Skoloff drove Thumper to the evacuation center to be reunited with her dog dad.

“I barely had the back door open when Thumper pushed her way out and ran toward him, her entire body wagging now,” he wrote.

“I can’t believe it,” Ross kept saying.

Here are some ways you can help pets displaced by the devastating wildfires in Northern California.

Photo via Facebook

 

Amputee Rescued from Bosnia Rescues 3-Legged Great Dane

When Maja Kazazic of Palm Harbor, Fla., was living in Bosnia years ago, she was severely injured by a bomb blast that killed all her friends.

The 16-year-old’s left leg became infected and had to be amputated. To her surprise, she was rescued by a stranger and eventually came to the United States.

Yesterday, Kazazic made a rescue of her own. The athlete, entrepreneur and motivational speaker adopted a three-legged Great Dane named Rosie.

Rosie, now 16 months old, was just a puppy when her mother stepped on her and broke her rear right leg. As with Kazazic, Rosie’s leg became infected and had to be partially amputated.

Rosie’s breeder wanted her to be euthanized, but thanks to Kazazic, the Great Dane’s life was spared.

“I felt this instant kinship because I have this affinity for things that are rescued,” Kazazic told FOX 13. “Being a rescued person myself, someone who should have died, it was really an instant connection.”

Kazazic found out about Rosie through the Hanger Clinic, which created her prosthetic leg as well as the prosthetic tail for Winter, the dolphin made famous in the heartwarming 2011 film, “Dolphin Tale” and its 2014 sequel, “Dolphin Tale 2.” *

Rosie’s veterinarian contacted the Hanger Clinic after the dog’s leg was amputated. Clinician Peter DiPaolo told FOX 13 the vet knew about the prosthetic dolphin tail. “He asked, ‘Can you guys make a prosthetic leg for a dog?’ and I said, ‘Absolutely.'”

The personalities of the dolphin and dog were similar, DiPaolo said. “They were both kids when they first were fit, and we’re going to see her all along the way,” he told FOX 13.

DiPaolo called Kazazic, who’d wanted a Great Dane since she was a young girl, and told her about Rosie.

“He said, ‘You’ve got to meet Rosie, you guys would be perfect,’ and I said, ‘Who’s Rosie?,’” Kazazic told FOX 13. “He said, ‘She’s a Great Dane that wears a prosthetic leg.'”

As Rosie grows (to about 135 pounds), instead of learning to walk on three legs, she will probably continue to need a prosthesis. Kazazic said her vet told her larger dogs have more difficulty balancing on three legs.

“I saw what happened to her and literally fell in love,” Kazazic told FOX 13 about her new best friend. “It was like the other half of me.”

You can follow their adventures on the Rosie the Great Dane Facebook page.

A similar “pawfect” match was made in April, when the family of 3-year-old Sapphyre Johnson, who had a birth defect that left her without some toes and fingers, adopted a white German Shepherd puppy born without a right front paw.

As with Rosie, other breeders advised Karen Riddle, of Greenville, S.C., to euthanize the puppy, who the Johnson family named Lt. Dan. But unlike Rosie’s breeder, Riddle said, No way! She knew this special puppy would be the perfect companion for a child with a disability — and she was right.

The Shriners Hospital for Children, which made Sapphyre’s prosthetic legs, has promised to make a prosthetic paw for Lt. Dan when he’s fully grown.

Photos via Twitter, Facebook

* iStillLoveDogs.com is a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program. If you click these links and buy the DVDs, iStillLoveDogs.com will receive a small percentage of the purchase price.

After Car Wreck, Dog Survives 7 Weeks Alone in Yellowstone

As they drove along a road in Yellowstone National Park July 23, David Sowers and Laura Gillice’s SUV was hit head-on by another vehicle.

Sowers’ dog Jade, an 18-month-old Australian Shepherd, ran off after a park ranger opened a door of the wrecked SUV.

“I was convinced she was gone,” Sowers told 9News. “I thought she’d probably gone three or four miles deep into the woods.”

Sowers and Gillice, who were both seriously injured in the crash, posted signs around the park, set traps using their clothing and food, and created a Facebook page.

The couple returned to Yellowstone several times from their home in Denver to try to find Jade, with no luck. About 25 people helped them look for the missing Aussie, playing recordings of Sowers calling to Jade on their cellphones.

Sowers and Gillice refused to give up hope, although they were worried about Jade being able to survive on her own.

“The wolves were a concern, of course,” Gillice told 9News. “And just the wildlife and the bears.”

As the weeks passed, several Jade sightings were reported in the Canyon Village area.

About a week ago, Sowers and Gillice (who is an agility trainer with the American Kennel Club) returned yet again to Yellowstone. This time Gillice brought her Australian Shepherd, Leila, along. Leila and Jade are good buddies.

Early each morning, Gillice took Leila for a walk around the Canyon Village area, encouraging her to bark and hopefully attract Jade’s attention.

While walking Leila Friday morning, 43 days after the car accident, Gillice passed a couple who had stopped to take pictures.

“Out of the corner of my eye, I saw this black-and-white movement,” Gillice told the Missoulian. “I asked the couple, because they had binoculars, ‘Is that a deer or a dog?’ She said, ‘It’s a dog.’”

Gillice called Jade’s name. “She just came running to me, like, ‘Where’ve you been, mom?’” she said.

She leashed Jade and walked both dogs back to the hotel where she was staying with Sowers. When the dog dad saw his long-lost Jade, it was a “hugfest,” Gillice told the Missoulian.

“I saw Jade running in the front door and I just lost it,” Sowers told 9News. “She just got up on me and bawled and cried for a long time.”

Sowers said Jade is “skin and bones,” and she has a small cut on her lip, but otherwise she seems to be perfectly fine — which is pretty remarkable considering that she spent seven weeks on her own in the wild.

“She was self sufficient,” Gillice told 9News.

Sowers told the Missoulian he was grateful for all the volunteers who tried to find Jade. “A lot of people have just dedicated their weekends to looking for her,” he said.

“It’s amazing. We didn’t think we’d ever see her again.”

Photos via Facebook

Service Dogs Help Farmers with Disabilities Do Their Jobs

One of the most helpful farmhands on Alda Owen’s 260-acre property in Maysville, Mo., has four legs.

Sweet Baby Jo, a Border Collie, is an expert at rounding up cattle. This is especially handy since Owen is legally blind and can only clearly see objects close at hand.

“She’s made it possible for me to be a productive person, to keep the life we’ve built,” Owen told the Associated Press.

Troy Balderston, who became a quadriplegic after a 2010 car accident, has a Border Collie named Duke to thank for helping him continue to work on a feedlot in Norton, Kansas.

“Duke keeps me safe, he keeps the cattle from running me over,” Balderston told the AP. “He goes everywhere I go. He’s a great worker and a great companion.”

Bruce Trammell suffered a brain injury in 2008. His yellow Lab, Odie, helps him with his chores on his Missouri farm.

“It’s like a dream come true,” Trammell told the Mizzou Weekly when Odie arrived in 2012. “Not only is he going to be my buddy, but he’s going to be my right hand and stabilize me [from falling] so I can do the things I need to do.”

Sweet Baby Jo, Duke and Odie were provided to these farmers free of charge by the nonprofit organization P.H.A.R.M. Dog USA. (PHARM stands for Pets Helping Agriculture in Rural Missouri.)

The organization’s mission is to “train dogs to assist farmers with a disability or a disease that need the help of a four-legged farmhand to help them remain active and independent on their farm operations,” according to its website.

P.H.A.R.M. Dog USA was created by Jackie Allenbrand, who formerly worked for the University of Missouri AgrAbility program, and it became a 501c3 organization in 2012. It has matched 10 dogs with farmers in four Midwestern states.

“People think of farmers as rugged and tough,” Allenbrand told the AP. “When you see a big, burly farmer crying after they get a dog because they know they can keep farming, you see what a difference it’s making. That’s what drives us.”

P.H.A.R.M. Dog USA trains both herding and service dogs to help farmers with disabilities. Border Collies are trained to herd and control animals (I’m guessing not a whole lot of training is required), while Labradors and Lab mixes learn to perform chores like fetching tools and carrying buckets.

It can be a challenge to match a dog’s skills with what a farmer requires, P.H.A.R.M. Dog USA trainer Don McKay, who is also a farmer, told the AP. He said it sometimes takes a few days for the dog and farmer to get in sync.

The dogs in the program are donated or rescued from shelters. The funds to train them are provided by agriculture rehabilitation groups and some grants. Cargill Nutrition donates food for the trainees.

Allenbrand told the AP she’s been getting requests from farmers across the country for service dogs, but currently doesn’t have the budget to provide them. She hopes to eventually get corporate sponsorships.

“There are farmers all over the country who need this service,” she told the AP. “It’s important that we help them.”

To make a donation to P.H.A.R.M. Dog USA, click here.

Photos via Facebook; Facebook

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