George Clooney Adopts Unwanted Rescue Pup for His Parents

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.

Photo via Facebook

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

6 Dogs Run Loose on L.A. Freeway After Car Chase (They’re OK)

FEB. 25, 2016 UPDATE: Tiffini Tobe, the driver of the car and apparent owner of the dogs, died earlier this month after she jumped from a moving bus, NBC4 reports.

City of Long Beach Animal Care Services is looking for rescue groups to take Tobe’s dogs, which are still at the shelter. (KCAL reports that one dog has been adopted.) The three adult dogs “are loving females who seem to enjoy human interaction and likely get along with most other dogs, considering they all came in together,” according to the services’ Facebook page. If interested, call 562-570-7387 or email animalcare@longbeach.gov.

It seems like police pursuits occur almost on a weekly basis here in Los Angeles. I don’t get why drivers don’t just stop and pull over, since it’s inevitable they’ll run out of gas or just give up. And what I really don’t get is why anyone would do something so dangerous with family members as passengers — particularly four-legged family members.

But it happens. In February 2015, a man who led police on a chase through the San Fernando Valley, with his small dog beside him in his truck, shot himself to death after an hour-long standoff. The terrified dog ran from the truck and was eventually caught by animal control officers.

In September, a man shot a California Highway Patrol (CHP) officer after a high-speed chase in Riverside County. A Husky puppy who was found in the shooter’s SUV was rescued by animal control and named Chip in honor of the wounded officer, who survived the shooting. More than 75 potential adopters wrote essays explaining why they would be the perfect pet parents for Chip. The winner was Mike Ventura, a detective with the Los Angeles Police Department.

Yet another incident happened again last night. After CHP officers approached a car parked on the side of the 710 Freeway, the driver, Tiffini Tobe, took off, leading officers on a slow-speed chase. It ended in Long Beach when officers used the PIT (precision immobilization technique) maneuver to make her car spin around and stop.

When Tobe got out of her car, so did three of six dogs, who appeared to be Pit Bull mixes. After approaching and being pushed away by Tobe, who was lying face down on the freeway, the dogs started running around, their tails wagging. They were joined by the other three dogs who’d been left in the car with the window open.

Fortunately, the police officers had stopped traffic on both sides of the freeway. Also fortunately, officers from City of Long Beach Animal Care Services were able to corral all six dogs. (Kudos to those police officers, considering that some cops would probably have pulled out their guns and shot the dogs as they ran toward them.)

“This gives a whole new meaning to the term PIT maneuver,” ABC7 cleverly wrote on its Facebook page.

The dogs were taken to the Long Beach city animal shelter. Hopefully they’ll all find forever homes with more responsible pet parents.

Driver Previously Charged with Animal Abuse

It turns out that Tobe, the driver of the car and owner of the six dogs, was charged last year with animal abuse, the Los Angeles Times reported Jan. 21.

In June, Tobe was charged with a misdemeanor (!) count of failing to provide veterinary treatment after it was discovered that one of her dogs had chewed the skin off a rear foot, exposing the bone, and was not seen by a veterinarian for six months. The 4-year-old Pit Bull was suffering from hypertrophic osteopathy and had to be euthanized.

Tobe was ordered at the time not to have any pets.

When she failed to show up for a hearing earlier this month, a warrant was issued for her arrest. After Monday night’s car chase, Tobe was charged with a felony count of reckless driving and misdemeanor counts of DUI, resisting an officer and driving without a license. Today she pleaded not guilty to all charges. She is scheduled to appear in court Jan. 28 for a pretrial hearing.

Her six Pit Bulls corralled after the car chase, including three puppies, their mother and two other dogs, had “no obvious signs of significant injury or illness,” Ted Stevens, manager of Long Beach Animal Care Services, where the dogs remain in custody, told NBC Los Angeles. “So far they’ve shown no aggression. They appear bright, alert, responsive, friendly.”

The dogs may eventually be available for adoption or released to a local rescue. “I think any dog that ends up away from their home and family is a bit stressed,” Stevens said. “We’ll do our best to keep stress to a minimum.”

 

Photo via YouTube

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

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