Tag: Golden Retriever

News Reporter Rescues Dog Stolen from Restaurant

Stopping for lunch near Houston on their way home from a road trip last weekend, Andrew Mathias and his family tied their 4-year-old Golden Retriever, Lucy, to a tree in the restaurant’s parking lot. They assumed she’d be safe and cool in this shady spot.

They were sadly mistaken. When they left the restaurant, Lucy was gone. A surveillance camera captured footage of a woman untying Lucy, taking her to a truck and then driving away.

After viewing the footage, Matt Dougherty, a reporter with CBS affiliate station KHOU in Houston, decided to do his best to find Lucy.

Fortunately, the truck’s license plate was visible in the footage. Dougherty was able to get the truck owner’s address and, accompanied by a KHOU news crew, went to her home in New Caney, Texas.

There were a lot of dogs on the property. When Dougherty asked the man who answered the door if there was a woman there “who collects dogs,” the man said she was his cousin.

Dougherty and the news crew took Lucy and contacted authorities. The reporter also made a FaceTime video phone call to Mathias.

“Well, I don’t want to bury the lead — I’ll go ahead and let you know,” Dougherty told him. “We’ve got somebody in the back seat with us.” Mathias and his family were thrilled when they saw it was Lucy.

Later, as Polk County Pct. 2 Constable Bill Cunningham watched, Lucy was reunited with her overjoyed family.

Mathias told KHOU he’ll never leave Lucy unattended in public again.

Perhaps the dognapper’s heart was in the right place: She thought Lucy had been abandoned outside the restaurant, her two children who were inside the truck at the time told KHOU in a follow-up story.

Lucy “was looking confused,” a 13-year-old boy told KHOU. There was “a lot of saliva coming out of her mouth, so we thought oh, she’s super thirsty.” (The Mathias family said they had left a bowl filled with water next to their dog.)

The Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office is investigating the case. The woman and her children hope the Mathias family will forgive them. “We’re so sorry if you guys thought that we stole it,” the boy told KHOU. “We didn’t do it for bad intentions. We did it for a good cause, because we thought it was abandoned.”

Here’s some advice for this woman and anyone else who sees a dog in a similar situation: It’s a good idea to check inside the restaurant first to see if the owner is there before taking any action.

Photos: KHOU 11/YouTube

Elderly Florida Man Rescues Golden Retriever from Alligator

As Buddy Ackerman was out for predawn walk in Palm Harbor, Fla., earlier this week with Oso, his daughter’s Golden Retriever, an 8-foot-long alligator slithered out from a retention pond and snatched Oso.

Ackerman was using a retractable leash to walk Oso, so he didn’t see the alligator attack as the dog was taking a potty break near the pond — but he heard Oso whimpering.

“He was squealing a good bit when the thing grabbed him,” Ackerman, a 75-year-old grandfather, told ABC Action News. “Me, I’m a nervous wreck, I go up and slip and fall on my rear end, and the two of us are tugging. Alligator is going one way, I’m going the other.”

Although it may not seem like the safest thing to do, Ackerman did just what many pet parents, or parents of pet parents, might do in such a horrible situation. He immediately began kicking the alligator’s snout. It worked: The gator “opened its mouth real wide and backed up a little,” Ackerman told ABC Action News. It dropped Oso and crawled back into the pond.

Speaking of not being the safest thing to do, the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission (FWC) warns residents not to allow their pets to swim, exercise or drink in or near waters that may contain alligators.

It’s also important to note that some veterinarians and animal welfare experts are opposed to retractable leashes because they can be dangerous. “There are many reasons to avoid or reconsider the use of a retractable leash,” writes Dr. Marty Becker, “starting with the fact that on this type of leash, your dog can get far enough away from you to either get into trouble or into harm’s way” — as Oso and Ackerman so scarily discovered. These leashes can also cause injuries to dogs and people, “from superficial burns and cuts to horrific amputations,” Becker writes.

The good news is that neither Oso or Ackerman suffered any serious injuries during the attack. As for the gator, Ackerman called the FWC’s Statewide Nuisance Alligator Program (SNAP) hotline and reported it. An alligator that looked like Oso’s attacker was trapped by wildlife officials later that day.

Ackerman’s daughter, Jody, says her dad is a hero. “Osi and I are so very grateful that nobody was hurt,” she told ABC Action News.

“I’m chalking it up to good luck,” Ackerman told the Tampa Bay Times. “I was worried more about my daughter and how she would feel.”

Photo: @abcactionnews/Twitter

R.I.P. Bretagne, Last Surviving 9/11 Search-and-Rescue Dog

Bretagne (pronounced “Brittany”), a Golden Retriever who worked at Ground Zero in September 2001, trying in vain to find survivors after the attacks on the World Trade Center, died today. She was 16 years old.

She is believed to have been the last survivor of the 100 search-and-rescue dogs deployed there.

“She had lived longer and accomplished more than anybody,” Cy-Fair Volunteer Fire Department spokesman Capt. David Padovan told the New York Daily News.

As Bretagne made her final trip to the vet, firefighters lined up along the walkway, saluting her.

Her body was draped with a flag as it was transported to Texas A&M University, where a necroposy (an autopsy for animals) will be performed to study the effects of working at Ground Zero.

‘New Yorkers Stopped in Their Tracks to Thank Her for Her Service’

To celebrate her 16th birthday in September 2015, Bretagne was flown with her pet parents from their home in Cypress, Texas, to New York City, where she was treated to a party in her honor hosted by Barkpost.

“Everywhere Bretagne went,” BarkPost noted in a video, “New Yorkers stopped in their tracks to thank her for her service.”

In September 2014, Bretagne and Denise returned to the World Trade Center for the first time in 13 years.

“Seeing this kind of took my breath away a bit,” Denise told TODAY.com at the time. “It’s so calm and peaceful now, unlike the chaos of before. After 9/11, everybody — all of us — felt such sadness. We all wanted to help. I just felt so honored that we were able to respond.”

The Corliss family had welcomed Bretagne as a puppy in 1999. When Denise found out that civilians and their dogs can join federal emergency response teams to help out after a disaster, she and Bretagne began taking training classes together. In 2000, she and Bretagne were accepted into Texas Task Force 1.

Less than a year later, their very first deployment was to Ground Zero.

Bretagne worked 12-hour shifts for nearly two weeks. Along with the other search-and-rescue dogs, she became depressed when she found only human remains. To cheer the dogs, some workers buried themselves in the rubble so the dogs could discover someone alive.

Denise said her most memorable experience occurred as she and Bretagne waited in the staging area.

“Searchers would come by to pet her and to thank her, and would tell us their stories,” she told TODAY.com. “So it became an unexpected role of therapy dog. That’s what, among the other things, sticks out to me the most.”

After Ground Zero, Bretagne worked at several other major disaster sites, including New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. She officially retired when she was 9, but continued to work as a service dog at an elementary school, helping students with learning disabilities by being their audience as they read aloud to her.

“She still has this attitude of putting her paw up and saying, ‘Put me in, coach!’” Denise told TODAY.com. “She absolutely loves it.”

As Bretagne’s health deteriorated, her pet parents created a bucket list for her. One of the items they scratched off was bringing Bretagne to the elementary school so she could say goodbye to the students she had helped.

Rest in peace, beautiful Bretagne. Thank you so much for your service.

Grab a tissue or 10 and watch this touching video by Barkpost that documented “Bretagne’s Best Day” last September.

Photo via Twitter

Golden Retriever Runs Away to Doggie Daycare

Riley, a 5-year-old Golden Retriever from Belmont, N.C., was determined to go to his doggie daycare center — even if his dog mom, Tonia Mosteller, didn’t take him there herself.

When Mosteller drove Riley past the Happy Dog Cafe and Daycare last Saturday, Riley started whimpering when he saw a group of dogs being walked by a staff member. Mosteller told him it wasn’t his day to visit the daycare he’s been going to most of his life.

After dropping Riley off at home before she took off to run errands, Mosteller told WBTV that as he lay on the backyard deck, the dog “was watching me carefully as I left, but I didn’t think too much about it.”

Within an hour, Riley managed to escape from the yard and walk more than a mile to the front door of Happy Dog.

“I walked outside to see if Tonia was right behind him, and she wasn’t,” the daycare’s owner, Teresa McCarter, told WBTV. “He knows the way up here because they walk him all the time, and he just decided to put himself in daycare that day.”

Riley ran inside and went directly to the area where his pals were playing.

McCarter called Mosteller to let her know of Riley’s whereabouts — and told her he could spend the day there.

“He got a free day of daycare and he worked really hard for that day,” McCarter told WBTV.

Mosteller plans to make her fence escape-proof and take Riley to Happy Dog Cafe and Daycare more often. She told WBTV his escape was “a true testimony to how much he loves Happy Dog and the staff there.”

A post on its Facebook page says the daycare “is extremely grateful that Riley made his adventure safely to your Happy Dog Cafe. We LOVE dogs and Riley’s story is proof.”

The clever WBTV news report shows Riley’s escape from a dog’s-eye view.

Photo via Facebook

Tissue Alert! Watch a Senior Golden Retriever Reunite with Her Soldier Dog Mom

There’s nothing quite as touching as videos of soldiers reuniting with the beloved dogs they had to leave at home — especially when the dog is a senior who had never before been separated from her pet parent.

That was the case for a 13-year-old, arthritic and partially deaf Golden Retriever named Buddy. Her dog mom, 21-year-old Hannah Foraker, had Buddy ever since she was a puppy, and had never been away from her home in Cleveland when she joined the Army last year.

After a three-month separation, Foraker was able to return home for two weeks at Christmastime. A video of her reunion with Buddy she posted on YouTube in late February is now going viral.

“Buddy came running, as best as she could, out of the house and said hello to everyone,” Foraker told FOX 8. “At first she didn’t even realize I was there, but she did a double take and came bounding over to me, whining nonstop in pure glee.”

While Foraker was away at Fort Sam Houston in Texas, she tried to communicate with Buddy using Skype.

“She doesn’t understand that her mommy is on the other side of the screen, but she can hear me (with the volume all the way up) and always perks her ears and starts wagging her tail,” Foraker told FOX 8.

Foraker said Buddy never left her side during her visit in December. She just wishes she’d taken more photos.

“I’ve just recently been informed that I won’t be able to go home again until next Christmas,” she told FOX 8. “A lot can happen in a year, but Buddy is a fighter.”

Here’s hoping their reunion next December will result in another viral video.

Grab a tissue — heck, grab the whole box — and enjoy Buddy and Foraker’s happy reunion.

Photo via YouTube

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