Bear Archives - i Still Love Dogs

Rottweiler Saves Pug Stuck in Well for 10 Days

Spooked by fireworks during a walk earlier this month, a Pug named Olive bolted. She seemed to have vanished from Wick, a village in England.

For over a week, Saffron Mackeson, along with friends and strangers, searched for her little dog. Their hopes for Olive being able to survive in the wintry conditions began to fade.

Ten days after Olive disappeared, Nichola Jones walked Bear, her 2-year-old, 110-pound Rottweiler, about a half mile away from where Olive ran off. Bear suddenly began to act strangely.

“I was just walking past a hedgerow and Bear stopped. He wouldn’t move,” Jones told the Daily Mail. “So I went through the hedge, and I found a well and looked down, and there was this black Pug.”

It was Olive who was looking back up at her. Jones climbed into the 5-foot-deep well and pulled her out to safety.

“I was worried she might have hurt herself,” Jones said. “She was petrified, but then her tail wagged. She was fine.”

Mackeson couldn’t be happier to be reunited with her beloved dog. “I’m so relieved,” she told the Daily Mail. “She’s lost a lot of weight, but other than that, she’s fine. We were so happy when we got the call.”

People that Mackeson said she doesn’t even know have been coming by, bringing Olive treats as the Pug recovers.

You know who else deserves to be showered with treats? Bear the hero dog.

“Bear is amazing. He is beautiful and has saved Olive’s life,” Mackeson’s mom, Zed Hale, told the Daily Mail. “He deserves a medal.”

Here’s hoping the gentle giant will get what he deserves.

Photo credit: joaquin uy/Flickr

Electronics-Sniffing Black Lab Helped Bust Jared Fogle

Former Subway spokesmonster Jared Fogle, as you’ve probably heard, was taken into custody earlier this week for paying for sex with minors and possessing child pornography. Incriminating evidence discovered by a 2-year-old Black Lab named Bear helped lead to Fogle’s arrest.

Bear is currently one of only four dogs in the United States trained to sniff out electronic media storage devices such as computers, iPads and memory cards.

After the FBI raided Fogle’s house in Zionsville, Ind., last month, Bear was summoned to do his job.

“I had no idea until that morning of what house I was actually going to,” his trainer, Todd Jordan, told WISH. “Once I found out who it was, yeah, it makes a little more nerve-racking for us.”

Bear discovered a hidden flash drive in Fogle’s house that was “vital to the investigation,” Assistant U.S. Attorney Steven Debrota told RTV6.

This was Bear’s fifth investigation for the Indiana Crimes Against Children Task Force. Jordan told FOX59 last month that electronics detection dogs like Bear are especially helpful in child pornography investigations.

“You think about investigators going into a house and trying to find a micro SD card that is as big as a fingernail. It will take investigators hours, especially if someone is trying to hide it,” he said.

Bear was “one of the sweetest dogs I’ve ever worked with,” Jordan told WISH. He trained Bear to detect electronic media storage devices a year ago. The process took about four months.

“It’s just like any other K-9 training, like with the narcotics or explosives or anything,” Jordan said. “You get the dog used to the odor and reward them as they indicate on it.”

When Bear finds something, he sits next to it. Jordan rewards him with a treat from a pouch he keeps in his pocket.

Jordan’s days of working with Bear have come to an end, however. Bear recently moved to Seattle to join its police department.

“It’ll be bittersweet,” Jordan told WISH. “It’s sad to see him go, but the type of work he’s doing, it’s very rewarding.”

Jordan is now training two more dogs to detect electronic media storage devices. Hopefully they will follow in Bear’s footsteps and help bust more child predators.

Photos via Twitter

Rescued Pit Bulls Save 3-Year-Old Girl from Bear

As a 3-year-old girl played in her Long Valley, N.J., backyard yesterday morning with Chief, one of her family’s four rescued Pit Bulls, a 400-pound bear that was well known in the neighborhood climbed over a fence.

“Usually the dogs will chase him off and he’ll climb over the fence and wait (for the dogs) to come inside,” the girl’s mom, Emily Wagner, told the Long Valley Patch. “He’s very smart.”

However, the bear wasn’t so smart yesterday.

“I looked up and the bear was about 15 feet from her and walking right toward her,” Wagner said. “The bear was between us. Chief heard her scream and immediately grabbed the bear’s back leg, at which point the bear turned and bit Chief’s face and leg.”

Wagner ran and grabbed her daughter, while the other three Pit Bulls helped Chief chase the bear away.

By the time police arrived, the bear had disappeared into the nearby woods.

Chief is okay, Wagner wrote on the Long Valley Patch Facebook page this morning.

“Fish and Game informed me that it’s mating season for bears, and they’re more active during the day,” she wrote. “Just a heads up to be vigilant with children and pets outside.”

According to the Patch, local police advised residents to call their non-emergency line to report bears coming too closely to their properties, and to call 911 in case of emergencies.

Photo via Facebook (from left: Chief, Chloe, Mack and Idget)

Elderly California Man Punches Bear to Save His Chihuahua

At the age of 73, Carl Moore probably knows it’s not the greatest idea to punch a bear. But when he saw one roam into his front yard last week in Placer County, Calif., and head toward his Chihuahua, Lacy, the senior citizen sprang into action.

“I raised both hands in the air and I cussed at him, ‘Rraarrrr! Get out of here, you bastard!'” Moore, a former U.S. Marine, told CBS Sacramento. “He looked at me like, ‘Go eff yourself.'”

So Moore walked up to the bear and slugged him in the face.

“Boom! I hit him hard,” he told CBS Sacramento. He said a witness told him he “damn corkscrewed his head.”

The startled bear took off, leaving Lacy unharmed.

“The man or beast I run from ain’t been born, and his mama’s already dead,” Moore said.

“I ain’t run from nothing. I never have in my whole life, and I ain’t going to start now. And you’re not going to sacrifice my babies for some damn bear.”

If there were such thing as a Wild Animal Fight Club for seniors, Moore might be joined by Steve Gustafson of Orlando, Fla. In 2012, the then 66-year-old grandfather punched a 7-foot-long alligator in the nose to get it to release his West Highland White Terrier, Bounce.

“It couldn’t feel any better,” Gustafson told WOFL. “It’s not like saving your child, but it’s pretty close. She’s my best friend.” Bounce needed a couple of stitches, but was otherwise okay.

Photo via Twitter

Devoted Dog Dad Who Cradled Schoep in Lake Gets a New Pup

You probably remember this photo if you were one of the millions who saw it when it went viral three years ago. Snapped by photographer Hannah Stone Hudson, it poignantly captured John Unger of Bayfield, Wisc., cradling his dog Schoep in Lake Superior.

Schoep, 18, had arthritis, and the lake’s warm water was soothing. Sometimes Unger would sit there for hours, holding him.

Unger found Schoep, who’d been abused, in a shelter back in 1995. Unger was suffering from depression at the time.

“He was my life,” Unger told KARE. “He saved me that night and I could only do my very best for him after that.”

Thanks to the photograph, donations for Schoep’s veterinary care poured in, allowing him to live a remarkable 20 years. He died in July 2013, cradled in Unger’s arms.

“It was really tough after Schoep left and I didn’t know what to do with my time,” Unger told KARE. “It was re-learning how to live, and once I learned that and once I got through the toughness of his love, that’s when I started searching [for a dog] again.”

He said Schoep remains in his thoughts. “I talk to him still. Thank him for everything,” he told KARE.

On Monday, Unger became “whole again,” he wrote on the Schoep and John Facebook page.

He adopted Bear, a year-old Akita/Shepherd/Lab mix who’d been surrendered to the Northwoods Humane Society.

“Ladies and Gentlemen – This Is BEAR!” Unger wrote. “The journey continues with the addition of Bear into my home, heart, soul and OUR lives!”

Bear is one very lucky dog. Here’s wishing the two many happy years together.

You can send a welcome note to John and Bear at P.O. Box 434, Bayfield, WI 54814.

The photo of Unger cradling Schoep can be purchased from Stonehouse Photo.

Photos via Facebook