Pet dog dies after violent cougar attack on Vancouver Island

Joanne Green has lost her seven-year-old dog Rupert to a violent cougar attack in East Sooke.

On Tuesday morning at 7:30 a.m., Green let her two lakeland terriers outside as she normally does.

“About 15 minutes later, I heard a scream from one of the dogs,” she said.

Green ran outside to see a cougar rushing into bushes on her rural property, and noticed Rupert lying still on the grass, bleeding.

“The cat got him and shook him,” Green said. “He had severe brain trauma and there were puncture wounds.”

She immediately rushed her dog to the Glenview Animal Hospital.

“They got him somewhat stabilized and we transferred him to the central hospital,” Green said.

Rupert spent the night in critical condition at the Central Victoria Veterinary Hospital, and died on Wednesday morning.

Conservation officers attempted to track the cougar with the help of a houndsman, but were unsuccessful.

The Conservation Officer Service is no longer searching for the cougar as tracking dogs won’t be able to find a scent.

“[The conservation officers] basically said they couldn’t go back unless they got another call of another sighting,” Green said.

She said she wasn’t aware there was a cougar in the area.

“I heard that some of my neighbors knew, but there were no signs up, nothing,” she said.

On June 1, the Times Colonist reported the sighting of two cougars outside of a Sooke bed and breakfast. Both animals, which may have been suffering from distemper, were tracked and shot.

Green is at home with her other lakeland terrier, Chester. For now though her thoughts remain on Rupert, a scruffy tan terrier Green could cradle in her arms.

“He was just the coolest little dog anyone could ever want to have,” she said.

Any cougar sightings can be reported to the Conservation Officer Service at 1-877-952-7277.

cclancy@timescolonist.com

Read more: http://www.timescolonist.com/life/dies+after+violent+cougar+attack+Vancouver+Island/6782141/story.html#ixzz1yLAmhMb6

Woofstock: 300,000 pet owners attend world's largest outdoor dog festival

More than 300,000 dog lovers attended the two-day event in Toronto, Canada, whose name is inspired by the world-famous Woodstock festival.

Described as 'the summer of canine love' when it was launched in 2003, the festival has grown from a local event into the largest of its kind dedicated to all things dog.

'We started small in 2003 in the Distillery District,' organiser Marlene Cook told the Toronto Sun. 'I wanted to do an event that honoured household dogs. 

'I didn’t realise how popular it would become. It just took off.'

Now in its ninth year, the event features a doggie fashion and talent show and an award for the best-dressed dog.

Dogs dressed in hats, coats and glasses were paraded at the festival which also featured a competition to find a pooch to play The Wizard of Oz's Toto in new American TV reality series Over the Rainbow.

Continued:  http://www.metro.co.uk/weird/901665-woofstock-300-000-pet-owners-attend-worlds-largest-outdoor-dog-festival

Croc caught in Australia after eating nine dogs

A 4.4-metre crocodile that had eaten up to nine pet dogs has been hauled out of a river in Australia’s north, a report said today.

The rogue croc was trapped at Daly River community, some 225 kilometres south of Darwin, where it was terrorising residents and animals, the Northern Territory News said.

Community police officer Mark Casey told the newspaper his office had nine reports of dogs being taken by a crocodile, believed to be the animal caught, in a month.

“Crocs are an ever-present danger but you don’t see them,” he said.

“They can sit for days on end on the other side of the river and watch you go fishing off the same log or rock — that’s how they hunt.

“Next thing you know, bang, the dog’s gone.”

Continued:  http://www.phenomenica.com/2012/05/croc-caught-in-australia-after-eating-nine-dogs.html

Patches the dog on death row saves his own life by singing Happy Birthday

They say that every dog has its day, but the days of Patches the mongrel seemed numbered - until he was able to sing Happy Birthday.


Patches was due to be put down at a dog pound because no-one who could prove they knew him had come forward.

That was until a dog foster carer called at Mildura pound in Australia, where 15-year-old Patches was being kept on death row and tried to get him to sing Happy Birthday. He obliged - and his life was spared.

If that sounds like a shaggy dog story, well, you should hear him howl in accompaniment whenever anyone strikes up a rendering of the birthday tune.


Patches' elderly master, Eddie Vassallo, an Italian migrant living in northern Victoria, used to spend hours sitting with his pet on his knee.

But when 82-year-old Eddie died three months ago, Patches got caught up in the confusion that followed and ended up in a pound

Working on behalf of Mr Vassallo's daughter, who lives in far-away Sydney, Kaye Grivec, a Victorian Dog Rescue foster carer, helped in the hunt for the much-loved pooch.


When she arrived at the pound, Miss Grivec was asked if she could prove that Patches belonged to someone.

'There's only one way to find out,' said Miss Grivec, and started singing Happy Birthday to the dog.

'At first, he had a sad, faraway look in his eyes, just like he was thinking about something or missing someone,' said Miss Grivec.

'Then he just put his head back and started howling along with me, and I just burst into tears of joy,' she told Melbourne's Herald-Sun newspaper.

Marie Vassallo, daughter of Patches' late master, was overjoyed when she learned that the dog's enjoyment of Happy Birthday had saved his life.

'When they finished singing, Dad would say "bravo, bravo, Patches" and Patches just loved it," she said.

'Also, when it was anyone's birthday, Dad would telephone them and he would sing Happy Birthday to them with Patches singing along.

'It was Patches' favourite song and it became a family tradition for Dad and Patches to sing it together.'

When she learned that Patches had disappeared following her father's death, Miss Vassallo was heartbroken.

'He'd been impounded for quite a while and his time on death row was almost up.

'Thank goodness he's been found and saved and it was all due to that song.

'We're now arranging to have Patches brought up to Sydney to live out his life with the family.'

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2017733/Patches-dog-death-row-saves-life-singing-Happy-Birthday.html#ixzz1TDuILSej

Australia's fattest dog put on diet

Samson, a black labrador retriever, weighs-in at a very tubby 13.3 stone - twice his normal weight.


His owners admit that an unhealthy diet of burgers, pizza and pies has turned their pet into a couch potato that can hardly fit in his own kennel.

Samson is now working with vets in Melbourne who have put him on a strict diet to help the podgy canine shed some weight.

"He's getting two feeds a day of a specific veterinary prescription diet that provides all the nutrition that he needs without the calorie content," said vet Amber Lavery.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/australiaandthepacific/australia/8591503/Australias-fattest-dog-put-on-diet.html