Do you love puppies? Well, so does this sweet capuchin monkey, who gently nuzzles, pets and grooms a litter in this one-minute video going viral.
The “Monkey and his new puppies” video was posted on YouTube Wednesday by Jesse Lightfoot, who provided no further information about this delightful puppy/monkey meet-up.
Enjoy!
It’s really a miracle that a horrifically abused puppy named Jordan is alive today.
Someone saw the puppy being thrown 30 feet into a concrete portion of the Los Angeles River. The eyewitness contacted L.A. on Cloud 9, a local charity that helps homeless people and their pets.
That group contacted Hope for Paws, which made a video of its rescue of the starved, mange-covered puppy from the riverbed.
“Oh my god,” gasps Eldad Hagar, founder of the non-profit, as he lifts the frail puppy into his arms. “Someone literally cut off his foot.”
Hagar gently puts the puppy in a basket, and volunteers raise him to street level. On the way to an animal hospital, Hagar names the puppy Jordan.
The hospital staff bandaged Jordan’s rear leg and gave him a bath. He received a blood transfusion from Laila, a dog Hope for Paws had rescued earlier that week.
Four days later, Jordan was strong enough to have surgery on his leg. Unfortunately, it had to be amputated.
Jordan was released from the hospital and began to thrive at the home of his loving foster mom, Lisa Chiarelli. His fur-legged foster sisters, Lola and Frankie, were also happy to look after him.
After a few weeks of physical therapy, you’d never know that Jordan has fewer than four legs. The small pup has no problem keeping up with his big (literally) sisters.
“Though Jordan lost his leg, he never lost HOPE,” reads a title on Hagar’s video of the puppy’s amazing recovery.
Hope for Paws is asking for a $5 donation; click here to help them make more miracles come true. Remember the viral 2012 video of a matted, blind Poodle named Fiona getting an amazing makeover? That was also the work of Hope for Paws.
Be warned that parts of this video are very graphic and difficult to watch. A longer, 9-minute version can be viewed on the Hope for Paws website.
Photos via YouTube
May 2017 Update: The sequel “Max 2: White House Hero” (affiliate link) is now available on digital HD and DVD.
It’s not just two-legged members of the military who can suffer the devastating effects of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) — military dogs are susceptible as well.
The title character of the new movie “Max” (affiliate link) — which Esquire is calling “Hollywood’s dog version of ‘American Sniper'” — is a Belgian Malinois who’s been traumatized by the death of his handler, U.S. Marine Kyle Wincott, who was killed in Afghanistan.
Max is adopted by Wincott’s family and bonds with his teenage brother as they both cope with their loss.
At least 10 percent of military dogs suffer canine PTSD, according to Walter Burghardt Jr., chief of behavioral medicine and military working-dog studies at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Dogs and their handlers are trained for all military branches at Lackland, which also has a state-of-the-art veterinary hospital that treats military and police dogs.
Canine PTSD was first recognized as a combat affliction in 2009.
The dogs are “essentially broken and can’t work,” Burghardt told the Los Angeles Times in 2012.
As with humans, the symptoms of canine PTSD vary. Dogs may be afraid of the dark or loud noises, or their temperaments may drastically change. Most of the dogs refuse to perform the tasks they were trained to do.
The treatment for canine PTSD is similar to that for humans. It includes counterconditioning and, sometimes, anti-anxiety medication.
Burghardt estimated that about half the dogs with PTSD can be retrained for “useful employment,” while the other half — like Max — are retired from the military and can be adopted as family pets.
This is a huge improvement since the 1970s, when hundreds of military dogs who served in Vietnam were considered “equipment” and abandoned there when the war ended.
“Max” was directed and co-written by Boaz Yakin (“Remember The Titans”) and stars Josh Wiggins, Robbie Arnell, Thomas Haden Church and Lauren Graham. It’s coming to a theater near you June 26.
The official trailer was released this week. Grab a tissue or three, and take a look. (The heartbreaking scene at the marine’s funeral is likely based on this real-life incident.)
Photo via Facebook
“My name is Joey. I am looking for a home. Please take care of me!!” The handwritten plea was on a note attached to a Pointer mix who’d been tied to a light post March 1 in a San Pedro, Calif., park.
Lisa Snyder, who, with her three rescue cats, had been living in her van in the parking lot of Point Fermin Park, decided to heed the note and take care of Joey. She grabbed hold of his leash after he broke free from the light post.
“He was scared,” Snyder told CBS Los Angeles. “He was snapping. And growling. And trying to get away from people. He was just scared.”
Since her cats are not dog friendly and she couldn’t keep Joey, Snyder walked him around the park, trying to find someone who would give him a home. She found no takers.
Snyder decided to take Joey to the nearest animal shelter. It was cold and raining, and Snyder has to use a cane, but she managed to walk Joey to the Harbor Animal Care Center, three miles away.
“I got to thinking, If I had left him out here with all that wind coming off the bluff and all that pouring rain and no shelter over there at all, he would have ended up sick, maybe dead,” she told CBS Los Angeles.
When Lorna Lee Locke Salem heard about Snyder’s good deed, she started a gofundme.com campaign to raise money to pay for repairs to Snyder’s van.
“She opened her heart. Let’s open ours and help her,” Salem wrote.
The initial goal was $500. After Snyder’s story made the news, contributions reached a grand total of $3,590.
Rami Packer, owner of Butch’s Auto Repair in San Pedro, heard about Snyder and offered to repair the good Samaritan’s van.
There’s good news for Joey, as well. After his 10-day holding period ended, Barbie Icaza of Forte Animal Rescue sprang him from the shelter.
“He has had his first bath and is settling into his foster home,” Forte Animal Rescue wrote on its Facebook page Sunday.
Hopefully Joey will be in a new forever home — with extra emphasis on forever — very soon.
“I hope he finds a good family. A forever home. He needs one. He deserves one. He’s a good dog,” Snyder told CBS Los Angeles.
“Our pass it forward has gone full circle,” Salem wrote in an update today on the gofundme.com page. “Lisa Synder helped Joey in his time of need. Rami of Butch’s Auto Repair helped Lisa with her failing van. Barbie of Forte Animal Rescue took Joey to make certain he gets a forever home.
“And they all lived happily.”
Photos via gofundme.com
“Dogs can come back from anything. They forget their past,” Joanne George, dog mom to a 12-year-old Golden Retriever named Smiley, told CBS News. “We as humans, dwell on the past.”
The past that Smiley bounced back from included spending the first couple years of his life in a puppy mill. If that alone wasn’t bad enough, Smiley was born with dwarfism — and without eyes.
George, a dog trainer who lives in Stouffville, Canada, rescued Smiley when he was 2 years old.
“He was very scared,” she told ABC News. “[The dogs] had never been out of that barn.”
Smiley was very anxious about living in a home, George wrote on her Training the K9 Way website. “He cowered at the sound of another dog eating. The scars on his face and ears told me the stories of what it was like living with so many dogs in such deplorable conditions.”
Smiley soon bonded with George’s other dog, Tyler, a partially deaf Great Dane.
“Tyler was so bouncy and crazy and happy-go-lucky, and [Smiley] turned into the same dog,” George told ABC News. “He came out from underneath the tables where he was always hiding.”
As Smiley blossomed, George said she noticed the positive effect he had on people.
“People were so drawn to him, so inspired by him. I realized this dog has to be a therapy dog — I have to share him,” she told CBS News.
Smiley did just that. He and George joined the St. John Ambulance therapy dog program in Ontario. Smiley helps special-needs children learn to read through a library literacy program, and also works at funeral homes and nursing homes.
The employees of one nursing home had never seen a mute patient named Teddy express any emotion, until Smiley came along.
“One day, Smiley put his feet up in front of [Teddy], and he started smiling and making noise,” George told CBS News. “All of the nurses rushed into the room and said they’ve never seen him smile — never seen any kind of reaction.”
Teddy is now the first patient Smiley visits whenever he goes to that nursing home.
“I think that’s when I realized how truly inspiring he can be,” George told CBS News.
Her advice for pet parents of blind dogs: “Don’t be his eyes, don’t run his life, don’t keep him in a bubble.”
Smiley is able to get around without much difficulty, George told ABC News. He raises his feet as he walks.
“He’s feeling with his feet,” she explained. “Does he bump into things? Of course he does. But he does it very carefully.”
(Silvie Bordeaux, dog mom of Muffin, a blind Toy Poodle, invented the ingenious Muffin’s Halo Guide for Blind Dogs, which provides padding and prevents dogs from bumping into things or falling down stairs, as Muffin once did.)
Smiley is now 12 years old and starting to slow down, but, George told CBS News, his “tail will never stop wagging.”
“The quote, ‘The dogs we really need are the ones that come to us,’ is very true in this case,” George told Head-Lites. “I am a better human being and mother because of him.”
Photo via Twitter
