Mayor rescues dog that didn't need rescuing

The mayor of a Texas town was so concerned when he heard reports of a dog stuck on a second-story balcony that he alerted emergency workers, went to the location himself, and bravely scaled a ladder and entered the apartment to help the dog.

The problem was, the dog wasn't in distress. It was sunbathing.

The bigger problem came when the surprised dog owner found Mayor Pat Ahumada standing in his kitchen Tuesday.

'He broke into my house,' the owner, who asked not to be identified, told the Brownsville Herald. 'My dog is very well taken care of. He (the mayor) shouldn't have done that.'

Ahumada, a well-known dog lover, said that a local TV station called him to say a dog was stuck.

'He looked to be stuck on the balcony,' Ahumada said. 'I didn't know the condition of the dog or if the building was abandoned. ... The animal's paws were hanging out from the railing and he was struggling to get up.'

The dog's owner explained that the 14-year-old dog has little mobility, and one of its greatest pleasures is passing the day on the balcony where it can watch the passing traffic.

Ahumada's zeal for dogs has caused problems before. In 2007, the city informed Ahumada that his six dogs were double the city's legal limit for one home. That same year, Ahumada picked up a dog thinking it was stray and gave it to a family. When the original owner asked for the dog back and the family refused, the issue ended up in court.

Two years earlier, before he was elected mayor, Ahumada was charged with theft after taking a dog from the Brownsville Animal Shelter. He claimed the dog was not being properly cared for, and the charge was dismissed.

http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/article.html?Mayor_rescues_dog_that_didnt_need_rescuing&in_article_id=569487&in_page_id=2