Otto gets to sleep with his head on the pillow and under a blanket next to his owner, according to this story from the Associated Press.
The Guinness World Records made it official: Otto is currently the oldest living dog. The former oldest was Chanel, who passed away in August. The average age for dogs is 12.8 years, according to this chart. The oldest dog on record was an Australian cattle dog who lived to be 29 years and 5 months.
Otto and Chanel have more than senior years in common. Chanel was a wired-haired dachshund. Otto is part dachshund and terrier. The secret to his longevity? Owners Lynn and Peter Jones of Shrewsbury, England, say he has a good diet, gets plenty of love and heads off to bed at 8 p.m.
Otto will be 21 in February. Mrs. Jones has owned him since he was 6 weeks old. “He doesn’t like his walkies much anymore,” she says, ”but he’s still sprightly.”
Rocky, the Windcrest Police Department’s canine that went missing Tuesday afternoon, was safely returned home Thursday.
Rocky’s handler, Officer Adam Lee, said the program director of Lackland AFB’s 341st training squadron, which trains military working dogs, found him — apparently soon after Rocky got out of his kennel in Lee’s backyard near the base around 4 p.m. Tuesday.
The director took Rocky home, believing he was Lackland’s, and it took him about a day to determine all of his dogs were accounted for, Lee said.
Thursday morning, the man saw news reports about the search for Rocky and called Windcrest police dispatch, who shared the news with Lee around 7:30 a.m.
“I can’t even explain how happy I am,†Lee said. “He’s stuck to my hip forever.â€
On Wednesday, Windcrest offered a $1,000 reward for the safe return of the 2 1/2-year-old Belgian Malinois. Rocky and Lee have been partners since 2008, when the dual-purpose canine joined the force.
STOUGHTON – Janet Torren knocked on doors, walked through woods and placed ads on the Inter- net hoping to find “Shai,†her beloved and valuable 4-year-old Silky Yorkshire terrier that went missing on Sept. 18 in Stoughton.
“I was petrified. I knew something was wrong. It was like Shai disappeared from the face of the Earth,†said Torren.
She hadn’t.
Torren said she was furious to learn several days later — from acting Police Chief Thomas Murphy — that Shai had been found by Stoughton
Animal Control Officer Kristin Bousquet the same day she was lost. But Bousquet had given the dog, which can cost as much as $2,000, to a friend of a Stoughton police officer on Sept. 22, the acting chief told Torren.
The department’s policy is to hold stray animals for a week before they are adopted or euthanized.
Murphy returned the dog to Torren on Oct. 1.
But now Torren wants answers and justice for the pain she and her family went through for nearly two weeks.
“I don’t ever want this to happen to anybody else,†said Torren, who lives in Rochester.
Shai escaped Sept. 18 when Torren visited her son Kevin Torren in Stoughton and the two went out for breakfast. Home alone, the dog managed to escape through a sliding door, Janet Torren said.
Torren launched a campaign to find her.
“I went through woods. Every single day, I advertised on Craigslist for lost pets,†she said, adding she made the 40-minute drive to Stoughton several times searching for Shai.
On Sept. 20, she called Bousquet to see if Shai might be at the Stoughton pound. Torren said she received a message from the town on
Sept. 21 at 12:24 p.m.
“This is Stoughton animal control. We do not have any dog that matches that description at this time,†the message said, according to Torren.
Two days later, Torren spoke with Bousquet again. By now, Torren said she was frantic.
“(Bousquet) told me to have some respect, that she is a police officer. She was very arrogant,†Torren said.
But Shai, which Torren bought as a puppy for $1,500, had a locator chip embedded in her ear. Torren said she called the chip’s distributor, 24HourPets.com, and was told on Oct. 1 that Shai’s chip had been scanned by a device licensed to the Stoughton pound on Sept. 18, the same day Shai had escaped.
Now irate, Torren said she called Bousquet on Oct. 1 and gave her an ultimatum — return Shai or face criminal charges.
“I called her up and I said, ‘I want my dog back! I don’t care how you get it back,’†said Torren.
Torren said when she made the threat, Bousquet told her Shai would be at the Stoughton police station within 30 minutes.
Later that day, according to Torren, she and Shai were reunited in the acting chief’s office.
“I was just totally relieved. Shai went crazy. She was just a real sweetheart. (The chief) was very good about it. I have to admit that the one who had her treated her fantastic,†Torren said.
Although the animal officer works in the Police Department, Bousquet is a civilian who is hired by Town Manager Mark S. Stankiewicz.
Stankiewicz said he is looking into Torren’s complaint, but said he could not provide details.
“I am aware of this particular complaint. It’s been reviewed by the Stoughton Police Department under which the animal control officer works. Right now it’s a personnel matter. Any action, I cannot talk about,†Stankiewicz said.
The acting chief also declined to discuss the incident, saying it is being investigated.
“I can tell you her dog was returned to her in good health on Oct. 1,†Murphy said. “The matter was handled professionally.â€
Contacted Monday, Bousquet declined to comment.
Bousquet has been the town’s full-time animal control officer since 2003, having been hired part-time in 2000. Her salary is $40,705.
Torren said her son, sister Valerie Boyle and brother Theodore Michalski, 63, all helped her cope with the ordeal.
On Sept. 23, Michalski, a retired Weymouth police officer, died of pancreatic cancer.
“I was dealing with two losses. I think a lot of people would have stopped (searching) and let it go. But with everything else that was going on with me, I couldn’t,†Torren said.
Study shows most pet owners would attempt CPR on their dog or cat. But what about other emergency preparedness?
Although most pet owners say they’d attempt doggie- or kitty-CPR to save an animal in danger, many are unprepared to deal with a wide range of other pet-related emergencies, according to a new poll conducted jointly by the Associated Press and Petside.com.
The poll, conducted Oct. 1-5 by GfK Roper Public Affairs & Media, utilized telephone interviews (both cellphone and landline) with 1,166 pet owners nationwide. Of those, 58% said they would be at least somewhat likely to perform CPR on a pet in need. (That figure is an average of dog owners, of which 63% said they would try to perform CPR, and cat owners, of which 53% gave the same answer.) Additionally, female pet owners were statistically more likely to attempt CPR on their pets, with 65% of women and only 50% of men saying they would try the technique.
“If people value their pets like a family member, they should know how to do CPR, just like they would for their kids. In disasters, pets get hurt and run into debris and all kinds of things,” Mark Solnick, director of emergency preparedness and response for the Red Cross of Santa Monica, told the Associated Press of the findings.
Both the American Red Cross and a number of private organizations offer pet first aid and CPR classes. Fortunately for Angelenos, one of these, Sunny-Dog Ink, offers seminars right here in Los Angeles.
Despite the generally favorable CPR statistics, the poll found emergency preparedness lacking among pet owners in several other key areas. Fifty-four percent of those interviewed said they did not have a fire evacuation plan for their dog or cat, and only 20% kept a stocked pet first-aid kit in their home. The Associated Press reports on a few other troubling trends:
And the survey revealed frequent reporting of dangerous practices that can lead to accidents and injuries. For example, a quarter of pet owners, including 30% of dog owners and 22% of cat owners, give their pets bones from table scraps, at least sometimes.
Sixty-two percent of dog owners and a third of cat owners let their pets ride in their cars unrestrained, rather than placing them in a special pet carrier. And 11% of pet owners sometimes leave their pets unattended in a car or truck.
A few more interesting statistics from the new poll: Seventeen percent of those interviewed said that a pet had been bitten or attacked by another animal (9% said their pet had been the attacker in such an incident, and 5% said their pet had bitten or attacked a human); 16% said their pet had experienced an allergic reaction; 7% said their pet had consumed poisonous material; and 11% said they’d had the agonizing experience of having a pet hit by a car.
The American Veterinary Medical Assn. offers a handy, printable list of items that should be kept in a pet first-aid kit; among them are phone numbers for the pet’s regular veterinarian as well as an emergency vet clinic and the animal poison-control center (888-4ANI-HELP); gauze; nonstick bandages, towels or other cloth as well as adhesive tape to secure cloth in place; milk of magnesia or activated charcoal for use in the event of poisoning; hydrogen peroxide; and a thermometer. For the full list, check out the AVMA’s website.
