Free Republic

Naperville police are crediting a woman’s 100-pound dog with saving her from further harm by an assailant near her apartment. Sgt. Joel Truemper said the woman, who police did not name, had taken her dog for a short walk around 11:30 p.m. Thursday when she was jumped from behind, knocked to the ground, choked and punched in the face. The woman’s dog, a Great Pyrenees, bit the attacker in the face and chest, she told police. Truemper said there was no blood trail left by the assailant and a check of area hospitals for men seeking treatment for dog bites...

Dog saves man's leg A man had his leg saved from amputation after his dog licked it better. Mitch Bonham, 45, was told he would lose the limb after it began turning black following an accident while in the Royal Navy. But then his Jack Russell Milo began to lick Mitch's leg for up to four hours a day. When he returned to the doctor he told him it was healed reports The Sun. Mitch, 45, from Barry, South Wales, believes the condition Sudeks Atrophy which affected his right leg up to the knee was caused by a broken toe...

A year ago — with the help of her faithful mutt, Cookie — former fashion model Carina Schlesinger scratched, punched and kicked with all her strength to ward off a would-be rapist in Central Park. Yesterday, as she relived the dramatic sex assault — this time alone, getting cross-examined on the witness stand in Manhattan Supreme Court — the courageous Copenhagen native showed the same fighting spirit. "But I locked eyes on him!" the stunning woman insisted as the accused fiend's lawyer grilled her on apparent inconsistencies in her initial descriptions to cops. "His eyes, I will never forget," she...

A man who tries to break into an east Wichita home is surprised by who is there. The burglar thought the house was empty. Instead a child home alone helps foil the home invasion. The ten year old girl would normally be at school. Instead she was home sick, alone. But she wasn't completely alone. She had the family pet, a pit bull terrier to keep her company. Around 11:00am Tuesday, an intruder came to the home, perhaps thinking no one was there. As he kicks in the door he yells "where's the money?" Once inside, he was confronted by...

A former fashion model took the stand in Manhattan Supreme Court yesterday, describing her would-be rapist's jet-dark eyes, his battering fists, his sick demands — and how she was saved by her mutt, Cookie. "My dog saved my life," said Carina Schlesinger, the victim of last year's brutal Central Park attack, testifying as the first witness in the attempted-rape trial of career thug Tito Rodriguez.

From The Antelope Valley Press in California comes the story of our K-9 contingent in Iraq. Chief Warrant Officer Peter Zorba, of Squadron HMM-764 "The Moonlighters" writes: I fly into Baghdad almost every night, but this night's mission was a special ASR (assault support request). A Marine K-9 had been killed and another dog wounded earlier in the day and we were going there to pick up the dead K-9, the wounded K-9 and their Marine handlers. How these Marines were attacked, whether in contact with insurgents, a sniper or an improvised explosive device (IED), we never knew. We took...

A 911 operator a few days ago in eastern Washington received a strange call. "I heard a dog barking.. it was very insistent. Then it would stop, and a few seconds later, start again. I knew there was something wrong" When police arrived, at first there was no answer. Then, after a minute or so, there was struggling and pounding on the other side of the door. They tried the door again, and it was unlocked. The caller then led the police to the owner of the house, a somewhat elderly woman who was on the floor and unconscious. She...

My dog and I are so close that it amazes me. One thing we sometimes do is to synchronize breathing. This is complicated, but it isn't. It's very basic. If I recall correctly (which I'm sure I don't), people breathe at a rate of about 70 per minute; dogs breathe at a rate of about 120. Almost twice. For us to synch, I need to speed up and he needs to slow down. We have gotten this right a couple times. It doesn't happen often. It's much like sex. What is interesting, however, is the attempt. When I can feel...

Sangeeta, a mother of three boys, looks down on her eldest son, Dinakaran, seated, and the dog that saved his life, Selvakumar Sunday, Jan. 2, 2005. Sangeeta could only carry two of her boys and had to leave Dinakaran to fend for himself when a tsunami crashed into their village on Dec. 26, 2004. Selvakumar pulled Dinakaran out of the family hut and nipped and nudged him up a hill to safety. (AP Photo/Chris Tomlinson )

A PET dog has saved a toddler from drowning in a dam at a property north-west of Melbourne. The 18-month-old girl was fished out of the dam at the Maryborough property around midday yesterday after the family's border collie raised the alarm, emergency services said. The dog alerted the toddler's mother to the emergency by running back and forth between the house and the dam, a Rural Ambulance spokeswoman said. The child and the dog, who was barking and seemed distressed, were inseparable, she said. "Apparently she was blue when she was fished out of the dam," the spokeswoman said....

Military Working Dogs Protect Forces, Bases During Terror War By Donna MilesAmerican Forces Press Service LACKLAND AIR FORCE BASE, Texas, Sept. 3, 2004 — Army Col. David Rolfe's military career has gone to the dogs. As director of the Defense Department's Military Working Dog Program based here, Rolfe and his staff are responsible for the health and welfare of some of the most unheralded members of the fighting force: its estimated 2,300 working dogs. These dogs, along with their handlers from every military service, are deployed worldwide to support the war on terror, helping to safeguard military bases and...

Dog Saves Family During Fire Tyler Alerted Sleeping Owner Of Fire Monday POSTED: 12:32 p.m. EST February 18, 2004 READING, Mass. -- One Boston-area family has learned that sometimes heroes come from the most unlikely places -- even the pound. Television station WCVB reported that Tyler, a German shepherd/Shar-Pei mix, has been credited with saving the lives of his owners after fire broke out in their home. Monday night, the Costa family lost their home of 55 years after an apparent electrical fire started in the basement. Margaret Costa said she, her husband, and her son were asleep, but thankfully,...

The family of a man who died went to a funeral home to make arrangements for the service and found his missing dog outside the building. Polo, a three-year-old Labrador and German Shepherd mix, bolted from home after the death of his 73-year-old master, Ed Crossan. Mr Crossan's daughter, Donna, said: "He got out and we went to look for him but couldn't find him. We finally had to just go to make the arrangements." They pulled up in front of the Wade Funeral Home on Radcliffe Street about a mile away from the Crosnan family home, and immediately spotted...

I drive a couple of hundred miles each week so my border collies can embrace their destiny—or is it their ancestry?—by herding sheep at a farm. When I'm there, I'm always amazed at the scores of people who show up with all sorts of dogs, from avid herding breeds to bewildered mutts. Their owners are all eager to expose them to the ancient art. "I do agility, obedience, and therapy dog training," the owner of a Lab/shepherd mix told me, "and I'd love to add herding. We have Thursdays and Fridays open." America has enriched its children to the bone...

''Operation Devil Dog'' aims to cool Marines' canine heroes By CATHERINE KOZAK, The Virginian-Pilot © May 16, 2003 An Outer Banks animal-help group is lending a hand to raise money for loyal four-legged Americans in the Middle East desert that need to chill out. After Patti Bourexis, a volunteer with the Coastal Humane Society, saw pictures of Marine dogs deployed with the U.S. military, she tracked down the nonprofit North Carolina museum that is collecting dollars to buy cooling vests and pads for the hot dogs. ``I really believe that the dogs are troops, just like the humans are troops,''...

A real Dog of War has been hailed the hero of a British Army raid on an Iraqi stronghold.Explosives sniffer dog Buster unearthed a hidden cache of arms from an enemy camp in the southern Iraqi village of Safwan. The Springer Spaniel's find was followed by the arrest of 16 Saddam Hussein supporters.Brown-eyed Buster, who is five, took part in a raid launched by 200 troops.His handler, Sergeant Danny Morgan, 37, of the Royal Army Veterinary Corps said: "The soldiers had found nothing so I unleashed Buster and sent him in."The rule is that the dog always goes first in...

<p>Domesticated animals look - and act - differently from than their wild counterparts. Why?</p> <p>The experiment was derived out of a discussion student Brian Hare had with his adviser, Michael Tomasello, an expert in primate behavior at Emory University. They were talking about how bad chimpanzees were at understanding human social cues. Despite being the heavyweights of animal intelligence, chimps were insensitive to what seemed to be obvious hints: They failed to pick up a cup hiding food even when the experimenter stared at it, pointed to it, and even tapped it. Tomasello wanted to talk about what this meant about the limits of nonhuman intelligence. Hare, a pet owner, had a down-to-Earth response: ''My dogs can do this.''</p>