K-9 Congressional Medal of Honor Winner

The K9 above is Brutus, a military K9 at McChord. He's huge - part Boxer and part British Bull Mastiff and tops the scales at 200 lbs. His handler took the picture.   Brutus is running toward me because he knows I have some Milk Bone treats, so he's slobbering away! I had to duck around a tree just before he got to me in case he couldn't stop, but he did.   Brutus won the Congressional Medal of Honor last year from his tour in Iraq . His handler and four other soldiers were taken hostage by insurgents.   Brutus and his handler communicate by sign language and he gave Brutus the signal that meant 'go away but come back and find me'. The Iraqis paid no attention to Brutus.   He came back later and quietly tore the throat out of one guard at one door and another guard at another door.   He then jumped against one of the doors repeatedly (the guys were being held in an old warehouse) until it opened.   He went in and untied his handler and they all escaped. He's the first K9 to receive this honor.   If he knows you're ok, he's a big old lug and wants to sit in your lap. Enjoys the company of cats.

The Duck Who Thinks She's A Dog    

A nine-month-old duck who thinks she is a dog has been causing a stir in a seaside town. Essy, a Cherry Valley duck, even has her own lead to go for walks around Bournemouth, Dorset, with owners Steph and Tony Tufft and their Staffordshire cross dogs Rachka, two, and DD, four. Essy came from the same duck farm in Cadnam as the famous four-legged Stumpy and thinks she is a dog.   She has a bedroom in the airing cupboard but prefers to sleep with the dogs. Essy also plays in the garden with them and even competes for treats. She has a pet passport so she can go with Mrs Tufft, 25, a dog groomer and cake decorator, and her 35-year-old husband, who is a boat builder, to Tenerife if they decide to move there. The dogs are also very protective of Essy who was even at the Tuffts' wedding reception in Cornwall in September as a guest of honour. She was alongside the happy couple and their dogs as a figurine on their wedding cake.

 

A Pit Bull Who Provided Lessons in Loyalty and Unfailing Love

html_removedBy PETER APPLEBOMEhtml_removed

Published: March 28, 2007

HOBOKEN, N.J.

Diana Pappas

Foxy the loyal pit bull.

In the pecking order of man and beast, there was no lower rung than the one shared by Randy Vargas and Foxy on the streets of Hoboken.

He was 46 and homeless, regular work like that fondly remembered machine-shop job long in the past. She was a member of dogdomâ€^TMs least-fashionable demographic, a 10-year-old brindled pit bull, compact as a pickup truck, ears askew, two-tone face, white neck, the rest an arbitrary mix of light and dark.

And yet in this city increasingly defined by creatures who drew the long straw â€" winners in real estate and on Wall Street, sleek goldens, pampered Yorkies, fashionable puggles and doodles â€" there was something transcendent in their bond.

Maybe in a world of opaque relationships, theirs was a lesson in clarity like a parable from the Bible. He had rescued her back when she was homeless and abused, a scared runty thing living with homeless men who had no use for her. She in turn gave him purpose and companionship and love.

Maybe it was how the relationship brought out the best in both. It brought him to life and into the world, as much a part of Hoboken street life as any young comer with his black Lab. And it made her a creature of eternal sweetness, unfailingly friendly to people and animals, tail wagging at the merest glance, a pit bull in name but not metaphor.

So if you spent any time in Hoboken the odds are pretty good you would have seen the two of them, sleeping in front of SS. Peter and Paul Parish Center, visiting the Hoboken Animal Hospital, walking down the street â€" the dog keeping perfect pace with him, dressed in winter in raffish layers of sweatshirts and T-shirts plucked from the St. Maryâ€^TMs Hospital Thrift Store, she keeping perfect pace with him.

Cheryl Lamoreaux remembered seeing Mr. Vargas resting on a condoâ€^TMs shaded concrete steps on a sweltering August weekend day, flat on his back with Foxy in the same position one step below. It was the perfect image of man and dog, she said, and added, “This really was a dog with a deep soul.”

Everyone who knew them said the same thing: Mr. Vargas cared for the dog better than for himself.

“If it was the dead of winter, the dog would get all the blankets, heâ€^TMd get the sidewalk with nothing on it,” said Robin Murphy, a groomer at the Hoboken Animal Hospital. “If it was raining, heâ€^TMd put the umbrella up for the dog before heâ€^TMd put it up for himself.”

But thereâ€^TMs not much margin for error at the bottom rung. Once this winter, he was arrested, accused of making threatening remarks to women. The case was dismissed, and friends say it should never have gone that far. But Ms. Murphy had to rescue Foxy from the pound in Newark, where she could have been euthanized.

It all ended so fast, people still canâ€^TMt explain it. Aside from a dog run, she had seldom been seen off the leash, but on the morning of March 19 in the park, she was. She saw a dog she knew across Hudson Street, dashed across to say hello and was hit by a white pickup that stopped briefly and then sped off.

He held the dog, blood spurting from her mouth, and waved at passing cars, but none stopped. So he carried her 60 pounds, feeling the broken bones in his hand, as far as he could, then put her down and ran to the animal hospital for help. But it was too late.

People come by every day, some fighting back tears, to leave donations, more than $900 so far. Some come from people who knew them, most from people who felt like they did. Alone they might have been invisible. Together, they were impossible to miss.

In different ways, theyâ€^TMre still around. Her picture is in some store windows, wearing a gray sweatshirt with a red T-shirt under it, gazing to the right like a sentry, a wondrous study in essence of dog with a touch of human thrown in. Since the accident Mr. Vargas has had good days and bad ones, sometimes being up and around, sometimes, like the other day, looking groggy and defeated under his red comforter on the street. “I feel,” he told a friend, “like I have a hole in my soul.”

At the animal hospital theyâ€^TMre buying a pendant to hold some of her ashes that he can wear around his neck. Friends check on him regularly, bring him food, talk of finally getting him a place to live. Thereâ€^TMs talk of getting him a new dog when heâ€^TMs ready, which surely isnâ€^TMt now.

“Itâ€^TMs like most relationships,” he said from under the red blanket. “You have to wait for the right time.”

E-mail: peappl@nytimes.com

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AP NEWS: BERRYVILLE , VA APRIL 5 2007

AMERICAN STAFFORDSHIRE TERRIER INVOLVED IN INCIDENT WITH CHILD AT AKC EVENT

Police were called today to the Clarke County Fairgrounds to
investigate an incident involving an American Stafforshire Terrier dog and a 9 year old child. The
American Kennel Club sanctions the event, held by the Clarke County Kennel
Club annually. Thousands of exhibitors and spectators attend yearly.

According to witnesses, the child was walking near the show rings
unsupervised when she suddenly came face to face with the 70 lb American Staffordshire Terrier
dog. The child threw her arms around the dog's neck, reports say, when the
unthinkable happened. The dog began enthusiastically licking the girl's face
as his tail wagged briskly.

"It was awful", said one bystander, "there was nothing we could do. That
dog was just giving that child every once of love he had and no one did a
thing to stop it".

Another witness, who took video of the event, said "This happens all
the time, I don't know how it hasn't made the news before now".
One spectator, who declined to be named in this interview, told reporters,
"The sounds were just heartwrenching, all that laughing and giggling. It
made me smile so hard my face hurts. I plan to sue for pain and suffering".
The handler of the dog admits this is not the first time such an incident
has occurred, and that the owners were "well aware of the stable, loving and
patient temperament of this dog". The owners were unavailable for comment.

Police state that the handler, who was noticeably unrepentant, was
cited for Reckless Entertainment. The dog was given roasted chicken treats
and was not taken into custody.

Twas the nite before Christmas when all thru the house   Not a creature was stirring not even a mouse.   The stockings were hung by the chimney with care   In hopes that St. Nick soon would be there.   The children all nestled all snug in their beds   With no thought of the dog filling their head.   And mamma in her kerchief and I in my cap   Knew the dog was cold, but didn't care about that.   When out on the lawn there arose such a clatter   I sprang from the bed to see what was the matter.   Away to the window I flew like a flash   Figuring the dog was free of his chain and into the trash.   The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow   gave the luster of mid-day to objects below.   When what to my wondering eyes should appear   But Santa Clause with eyes full of tears.   He unchained the dog once so lively and quick   Last year's Christmas present now painfully sick.   More rapid than eagles he called the dog's name   and the dog ran to him despite all his pain.   Now Dasher, now Dancer, now Prancer and Vixen   On Comet on Cupid on Donner and Blitzen.   To the top of the porch to the top of the wall   Let's find this dog a home where he will be loved by all.   I knew in an instant there would be no gifts this year   For Santa had made one thing quite clear.   The gift of a dog is not just for the season   We had gotten the dog for all the wrong reasons.   In our haste to think of the kids a gift   There was one important thing we missed   A dog should be family, and cared for the same   You don't give a gift, then put it on a chain.   And I heard him explain as he rode out of site,   "You weren't given a gift, you were given a life."