HOME |
RSS | 
Four-year-old Andrei Pavlov was feeding ducks near his home in Krasnoyarsk, Russia, when he fell through the ice into the freezing water of a pond. A stray dog named Naida immediately began barking frantically.
“She’s not just a dog,” Tatiyana Balashova told Komsomolskaya Pravda. “She’s not a pure bred, but she’s still very special.”
Balashova who usually feeds stray dogs in Krasnoyarsk was the person who reacted to Naida’s alert.
“I heard Naida barking on the pond bank, like she was calling for help. She saw me, ran up, looked at me and ran back to the pond…”
Balashova quickly realised that a child had fallen into the water and rushed to find help from utility service workers, who were luckily close at hand.
“Because of the fact the boy was taken out of water pretty quickly and due to medics’ professionalism, this story had a happy end for Andrei, without any serious consequences,” Vladimir Fokin, the chief doctor at the hospital Andrei was admitted to, told KP.
Andrei spent a few days in the hospital recovering, and is now in satisfactory health. Naida has been adopted by a family that lives 500 km away. The canine adoption was arranged before the near-drowning incident, and the new owners are particularly proud of Naida’s heroism. Link -via Arbroath
Shannon Keith and Gary Smith started the Beagle Freedom Project to find new homes for beagles that have been used for research. They named their first rescue dogs Freedom and Bigsby, and videotaped the beagles’ first brush with the great outdoors. Be warned that the video, while not graphic, may be disturbing and you’ll want to have a hanky handy.
Anyone interested in fostering or adopting a lab beagle should be aware of the challenges these dogs have. They will not be accustomed to life in a home and will not have experience with children, cats, or other dogs. They will not be house-trained and accidents will happen, although they learn quickly. Many have gone directly from a commercial breeder to the lab, and have never felt grass under their feet or even seen the sun. They will have been fed a special diet formulated for lab animals and may be difficult to adjust to new foods. They will be unfamiliar with treats, toys, bedding and may never have walked on a leash. They will have lived in cages with steel wire floors and may have inflamed or infected paws from the pressure. They may be fearful of people initially and may have phobias from a lifetime in confinement or from being restrained. They are likely to have been surgically de-barked by the breeder and have an ID number tattooed in their ear. Please also be aware that although these beagles are considered healthy, you will be given very little information about the beagle’s medical history, and you will not be told its origins or what kind of testing they may have been used for.
The video of Freedom and Bigsby is at the home page of the organization. Link -via Nag on the Lake
Osmar Persisco of Garibaldi, Brazil, took his dog out for exercise in a field and was approached by two robbers who demanded his car keys. When Persisco declined, they shot him, grazing the man’s head. That’s when Max the dog went into action.
“He saw the blood and was furious,” Persisco told Brazilian newspaper Globo. “He left like a rocket to attack the thieves. One of them ran away, but Max dominated the other one. To defend himself, the thief ended up shooting the dog. Max thwarted the assault and saved my life.”
Max was hit twice in his chest and once in his leg, but by then he had scared off the potential thieves.
Max was treated by a veterinarian and is expected to make a full recovery. Link -via Breakfast Links
(Image credit: Porthus Junior)
Comments Off
Augustin Zamora was walking his Great Dane Scooby in Chicago Thursday afternoon. Meanwhile, another man was following a 14-year-old girl.
The girl had just gotten off a Diversey Avenue bus near the 2800 block of North Whipple street and was walking home when she noticed a man following her, the Chicago Tribune reported. The man grabbed her as she ran up the stairs to her home, threw her to the ground and began to undress her.
Startled when Scooby and Zamora approached them, the attacker ran into an alley at George Street where he was corner by the team until police arrived.
Police charged 28-year-old Larry Smith with criminal sexual assault. Link -via Buzzfeed, where you can see more pictures of Scooby.
What happens in war when an enemy rescues endangered civilians? In 1942, a German U-boat sunk a ship carrying 400 Allied troops, dozens of civilians, and (unknown to the Germans) 1800 Italian POWs. The attack left a couple of thousand survivors floating in lifeboats or treading water in the ocean.
The survivors faced a certain and protracted watery death.
Then, the U-Boat commander Werner Hartenstein (left), made an extraordinary decision that went beyond all protocol.
He ordered the U-boat to surface he ordered his submariners to save as many of the marooned survivors as possible.
This act of humanity would save the lives of many hundreds of people. Yet the tragedy of the Laconia was not over yet.
A U-boat cannot accommodate so many people. What happened to the survivors of the RMS Laconia is the subject of discussion even today. Read the whole story at Kuriositas. Link -via the Presurfer
Seventy-two-year-old Mohammed Bellazrak dropped his wife off at the airport on December 23rd with no problem, but became disoriented in the snow as he was driving home to Trowbridge, Wiltshire, England from Gatwick airport. He should have made it home in a couple of hours. When he didn’t, his relatives contacted police. Sergeant Jo Spencer tells about the investigation.
“We contacted other forces with no success and then asked for the ANPR systems to be activated to see if anyone spotted the number plate CF53 BHE, the car in which Mr Bellazrak was known to have been when he left Gatwick for the 70 mile journey home.
“We were surprised to discover that ANPR cameras had recorded him in Bracknell, Wokingham, Burnham and High Wycombe – all presumably attempts at finding his way from Gatwick to Wiltshire.
“The last ANPR ‘hit’ we had showed him at about 6pm on Christmas eve in Hiugh Wycombe but then the trail went cold again,” she added.
On Christmas day, a CCTV camera recorded his license plate number in Oxford, where police were able to flag him down. He was reunited with his family. It is not yet known whether Bellazrak drove around the clock or stopped at night. Link -via Arbroath
(Image credit: Flickr user Jeff Van Campen)
The Daily Beast collected stories of animal heroism from the past year that might make you a bit teary-eyed. The story of Angel the golden retriever is an example.
Eleven-year-old Austin Foreman was gathering firewood near his home in Boston Bar, British Columbia, when he came face to face with a cougar. When the wild cat lunged at him, his Golden Retriever, Angel, stepped in. She put herself between Austin and the cougar, giving him time to escape to the house. The cougar viciously attacked Angel, carrying her around by the neck while Austin’s mother called 911. Police arrived just in time to shoot the cougar, and after a few moments of suspense, Angel coughed back to life. She had several puncture wounds and a punctured sinus cavity, but she made a full recovery.
See a video report about Angel and read about the other heroic animals in a slide show. Link -via Nag on the Lake
Oh, the horror! Five employees and two patrons were stranded at Lion Inn in North Yorkshire, England due to heavy snow. The inn is also a bed-and-breakfast, equipped with plenty of food, telephone and internet service, and alcohol. Chef Daniel Butterworth told of the harrowing ordeal.
At first the staff, all aged under 25, got stuck into the drinks, he said, but on the third day they eased off.
“We haven’t been getting ratty,” he said. “It’s been fun and we have had a laugh.
“We have been getting on with little jobs, having our tea, a drink, playing games and then going to bed.
“The bosses aren’t here, they are snowed out.
“We have wireless internet here and the television works so we have been fine.”
During the day, the couple and staff managed to get out onto the snow on improvised sledges made from beer trays.
Rescue came when snowplows finally broke through and the road was officially open by Saturday night. Link -via Arbroath
Three-year-old Alannah Merleto of Baulkham Hills, New South Wales, Australia flushes a lot of things down the toilet, as some children do, but her two-day-old kitten was the worst thing she could flush.
Mum Ammie Croft called in the cavalry to her Baulkham Hills home after not being able to find the fourth kitten in a newly-born litter.
“”I asked Alannah if she knew where he was and she said ‘down the toilet’,” Ms Crofts said. “I didn’t believe it could be true. I thought, ‘she can’t have put the kitten down the toilet’.” A whimper from the pipes confirmed her fears.
Complete with rescue equipment used in the 1989 Newcastle earthquake disaster, the NSW Fire Brigade arrived and began their quest.
The rescue crew found the kitten by putting a camera down the pipe, and pushed the kitten to an access valve. The eight firefighters worked for five hours to free the kitten. The kitten was reunited with his mother Pusska and was renamed Cain after the firefighter who pulled him from the drain. Link -via Buzzfeed
(Image credit: Brad Hunter)
Now that all the miners and rescue workers are safely out of the collapsed copper mine in Chile, The Brothers McLeod turn their thoughts to bringing up whoever else might happen to be deep below the surface of the earth. -Thanks, Myles!
A goose in Wausau, Wisconsin escaped becoming dinner when the man who was chasing him had to be rescued from the Wisconsin River.
Troy Kaczor, 40, told police he shed his shirt and shoes at Big Bull Falls Park in downtown Wausau before he dove into the river, intending to catch the one-legged bird and then roast it, Wausau Police Lt. Bill Kolb said.
Kaczor, who had been drinking heavily before taking the plunge, was unable to escape the clutches of the cold water and was rescued by Wausau firefighters, Kolb said.
The goose, apparently sober and a better swimmer, came to no harm, but was unavailable for comment. Link -via Arbroath
(Unrelated image credit: Flickr user Nita W)
I hope that you don’t rely on your GPS to the exclusion of your common sense. This guy followed his navigator’s instructions to “a glorified goat track.” and had to be rescued by a helicopter crew!
Driver Robert Ziegler, 37, found himself stranded near the peak at Bergun, Switzerland, unable to go forward or turn around to go back the way he came.
Rescue workers scrambled a heavy lifting helicopter to carry the van and its driver to safety after he dialed for help on his mobile phone.
“I was lost and I kept hoping that each little turn would get me back to the main road. In the end it told me to turn around but of course I couldn’t by then,” the driver told police.
Link -via the Presurfer
A cat in Leatherhead, Surrey, England had to be rescued from a tree by the fire department. That in itself is not newsworthy, but the firefighters also rescued a rescuer! A 6-year-old Maine Coon cat named Jadis was 30 feet up in a fir tree, afraid to come down. So owner Mike Wall, after trying other methods with neighbor Michael Jordan, climbed a ladder to get her while his wife Chris watched.
Mr Jordan said: “It was really difficult getting the ladder up and then it twisted against the trunk, which made it awkward to get back down safely from that high.”
With Mr Wall in the same predicament as Jadis, the fire brigade were eventually called to the rescue at about 2.40pm.
Mrs Wall said: “He wasn’t very happy. He was up there for about 40 minutes, so it definitely wore him out.”
Thankfully it didn’t take much longer until both Mr Wall and Jadis were safely back on terra firma and the firefighters didn’t go home empty handed.
Mrs Wall said: “The neighbours were wonderful and I kissed the fireman when he came down and then burst into tears. I hadn’t any wine so I gave them a bag of cat biscuits as a small thank you because one of them had cats himself.”
Comments Off 
Two goats were stranded for two days when they wandered onto the supports beneath a 60-foot-high train bridge connecting the Signal Peak coal mine to Broadview, Montana. Sandy Church of the Rimrock Humane Society answered the call to rescue the goats.
“We have absolutely no idea how or why these little critters would go out on this bridge,” Church said. “The only thing we can figure is it happened at night and they were unsure of their surroundings. Once morning came, they were too scared to walk back where they came from.”
Church called associates and brainstormed how to get the animals down. Freeman kept watch over the animals, while the deputy handled traffic.
Byron Kinn, surface superintendent for Signal Peak Energy, came to the bridge, checked out the situation and said the mine had equipment that could reach the animals. Mine boss John DeMichiei signed off on the plan and the goats were rescued by about 1 p.m., Church said.
Link -via J-Walk Blog
The Rimrock Humane Society posted a video of the rescue. Link
A 97-year-old woman owes her life to her cat Tiger. Sophie Thomas of Clare County, Michigan was caring for her lawn when a pack of dogs approached.
Thomas says, “All of a sudden these four pitbulls came marching in and they surrounded me. They kept going around and around. One of them kind of lunged for me and I hit him on the head and he backed off. Then another came towards me and I was scared stiff. I gave him a wack. All of a sudden, my cat jumped in the middle of it.”
The cat ran towards the garage and the dogs chased after giving Ms. Thomas just enough time to run inside. Fearing the worse for her pet, she waited, and washed her wounds in the sink. That’s when she spotted Tiger at the door. Thinking back she says she owes the cat her life.
Thomas says, “I always thank god that my cat came because she was the one that really helped me out.”
Ms. Thomas suffered minor injuries. The dogs are in quarantine for ten days. Link (with video) -via Arbroath
Amy Windom of Atlanta, Georgia was the victim of a break-in at her home. The gunman struck her with a handgun and tied her hands to the bed. She was left tied up for hours, while the intruder robbed the house and left. But Windom didn’t take it lying down!
Officers say the woman remained tied up for five hours before using an unusual method to notify police – the woman had her laptop with her and used her feet to type a message to her boyfriend who then called police.
Link (with video) -via Arbroath
Comments Off 
Imagine you are stranded in the woods with no way to call for help. An unnamed man in Saskatchewan found himself in just such a position, but he figured out a plan that worked. He cut down some power line poles! Several hundred people in Wollaston Lake and Hatchet Lake Denesuline Nation lost electrical power for two days. But the power company found the lost traveler.
“He was found under his boat in a very distressed state, so essentially he was stranded for a number of days and just desperate for people to know where he was,” SaskPower spokesman James Parker said.
The man reported he had been on a boat on the lake when he hit bad weather. He ended up stranded in the bush, with no way to communicate with the outside world, Parker said.
But he had an axe and he knew SaskPower would have to check the downed line, so he went to work.
“Essentially it was mission accomplished, because we got the call, we chartered a helicopter … and on Friday around noon we discovered him,” Parker said.
Plattsburg, Missouri police officer Nick Shepherd responded to a call for help involving a dog stuck in a fence. The wire was twisted, and Shepherd cut the fencing to free the dog. He then tried to capture the dog. What happened next makes it worth sitting through the jumpy footage from Shepherd’s automatic camera. Link -via Buzzfeed
There have been many instances of online communities banding together to help someone in the real world. The latest incident involves Metafilter members who kept two Russian girls from becoming sex slaves when they arrived in the US yesterday. They were promised jobs from a questionable source who directed them to a strip club for an interview. Mefi members went into overdrive to investigate, stop the meeting, and get the girls official assistance despite the insinuation of threats from their contacts. The thread at Ask Metafilter unfolds like a movie script.
Your friend has become a victim of human trafficking. Her ‘hosts’ know that her fear of immigration authorities may prevent her from seeking help. That fear makes it possible for them to continue selling women into sexual slavery. (And yes, that’s exactly what it is. Your friend’s passport will be taken, she will be raped, she won’t be paid and she may never have the opportunity to contact the outside world again). But i promise you, if you contact the police, they will be far less concerned about the immigration status of two Russian women than they will be about potentially bringing down a human trafficking ring. Some jurisdictions even have specific amnesties which protect the victims of human trafficking in return for information about their traffickers. If your friend won’t contact the police, you should call them yourself.
posted by embrangled at 6:02 PM on May 19
Link -via Boing Boing
Update: Newsweek’s blog has an interview with one of the principals in the story. -Thanks, dontyoukeep!
Twenty-five-year-old Xiao Chen sunk up to his waist in mud at the edge of the Chang Jiang River in China one night. Although he had a cell phone with him, he was too embarrassed about his predicament to call for rescue! He tried to get himself out for four hours before asking for assistance from passing fishermen. The fishermen then summoned professional help.
It then took emergency services a further seven hours to actually get him free.
Their task was made more difficult due to further embarrassment on Xiao’s part – despite the fact that a crew of firemen all stripped down to their underwear to help in the rescue, he refused to undo his own trousers so that he could be more easily pulled free from the mud.
Link -via Unique Daily
(image credit: Quirky China News/Rex)
Lucky found himself 90 feet up in a tree in Hartsville, South Carolina and was so frightened he didn’t come down for six weeks! In fact, he would still be up there if it weren’t for a brave tree climber. The fire department, a utility company, and a tree service had tried several times to bring the cat down, but didn’t have equipment tall enough to reach him. Lucky’s owner, Richard Nall, was relieved to have his cat back.
“He was alert, his eyes were wide open, ( he was) skinny as a rail, very dehydrated, and probably was in his last few days,“ Nall said of Lucky’s condition after he was freed from the tree.
Family friend Debbie Wilkes immediately transported Lucky to his veterinarian in Bishopville.
“He was running a temperature and they immediately put him on antibiotics, started IV fluids and gave him vitamin shots and offered him a can of food and he ate it all up,“ Wilkes said.
The cat lost nearly half his body weight, but is expected to recover. Link -via Arbroath
(image credit: Patricia Burkett/WBTW News13)
A Canada goose landed in a garden in Toms River, New Jersey with an illegal hunting arrow stuck through its chest. The garden happened to belong to retired veterinarian Bernard Levine. Dr. Levine captured the goose and removed the 26-inch arrow, which was lodged six inches deep in the bird’s flesh. Then he took the goose to a bird rehabilitation center.
“This is a smart goose,” said Dr Levine, 82. “He happened to come into the yard of a veterinarian that could take care of him.”
After it recovered at The Raptor Trust, the goose was released last week into a stream in a wooded area on the trust’s property.
“It feels great to see him free and liberated, enjoying life the way a goose should,” Dr Levine said, as the goose preened and waded downstream.
Levine also removed several air rifle pellets from the goose. Link -via Arbroath
Cracked has five fascinating stories of regular Joes who rose to the occasion wikth a spur-of-the-moment decision to take action. Some risked life and limb to save others, and then there’s Scot Halpin, who lived every young musician’s dream at a concert in 1973.
After 70 minutes of playing, Keith slumped over his drums. A cold shower and shot of cortisone later, and he was back on stage… where he quickly passed out again. Noticing the conspicuous lack of bitchin’ drum solos, Pete Townsend asked if there was anyone in the crowd who could play drums.
Scot Halpin, 19, hadn’t played the drums for nearly a year. Nonetheless he bravely stepped up and… stood by while his friend screamed, “He can play!” The concert promoter took notice, and, after a shot of brandy (with a conspicuous lack of tranquillizer chaser) Scot found himself on stage, behind the drums, playing for The Who.
Link -via Gorilla Mask
It was a scene reminiscent of Winnie the Pooh and the honey pot. A young bear was spotted in Reading, Vermont wandering about with his head stuck in an old-fashioned milk can.
State biologist Forrest Hammond, along with some help from firefighters and police, spent about 45 minutes Sunday afternoon getting the old fashioned milk jug off the 120-pound bear’s head, according to Vermont Fish and Wildlife spokesman John Hall.
The bear was found meandering through the woods along Route 106 in Reading, bumping into boulders and trees with the milk jug stuck on its head.
Hammond had to tranquilize the bear and first tried to soap up his head and pull the milk jug off, but that didn’t work and he eventually had to use metal shears to get it loose. “He just did an excellent job of getting out there,” Hall said. “It’s important, too, that nobody got hurt,” he said, adding that the bear was released into the wild.
Officials think the can had been used as a bird feeder because there was birdseed in the bottom, which may have attracted the young bear. Link -via Arbroath
Three fox cubs got their heads stuck in a drain grate in Plainfield, Connecticut last Friday. Neighborhood residents could hear their mother calling for them from out of sight. After firefighters were unable to cut the grate, Animal Control Officer Karen Stone tried lubricating the pup’s heads with Vaseline, then corn oil, but had no luck. What finally did the trick was a dose of Dawn dishwashing detergent. The pups were freed from the grate and driven back to the area of their den, soapy but unharmed. Link -via Arbroath
A cow apparently wandered into a culvert in Kaysville, Utah and squeezed through the town’s storm drain system until she became stuck where the drain narrowed just enough. Animal Control officers officers were alerted when a couple heard noises and found a full-grown cow in a street drain.
Holden Holt and his wife told FOX 13 they found the cow stuck the drain while walking Thursday morning.
“We heard a noise in the storm drain and my wife went over and looked and there was a head with some eyes poking out. It was a little frightening,” Holt said.
Animal Control staff tried in vain to chase the cow out the way she came in. Finally a crew had to dig up part of the street, and a tractor was used to pulled the cow out. Officers said she was underground for at least five days. The cow, covered with bruises and scratches, was returned to the farm and reunited with her calf. Link -via Fortean Times
Lawrence and Kerryn Munro were walking with their dogs along the White Umfolzi River in South Africa. When they stopped to dip their feet in the water, a ten foot long crocodile grabbed Lawrence by the ankles!
Mr Munro, 33, said: “It was a matter of seconds. I grabbed hold of the rocks and started kicking the croc with my right foot. He let go and grabbed again, getting hold of both feet. I tried to get to my rifle, but I had been dragged closer to the water and couldn’t reach it. Kerryn grabbed under my arm and around my neck and started pulling. Eventually the croc let go.
“My two-way radio had come loose and fallen into the river during the struggle so we couldn’t call for help,” he told the Mercury newspaper.
After pulling her husband free, Mrs Munro ran to the Makhamisa Base Camp for help. Mr Munro was airlifted to hospital in nearby Richards Bay, where he underwent operations to repair tendons in his right foot.
Kerryn Munro, who is five months pregnant, is resting up after the incident. Link -via Digg
(image credit: Flickr user Pandiyan)
3-year-old Victoria Bensch wandered away from her home in Cordes Lakes, Arizona last Thursday. She was missing in the nearby mountains overnight while the temperature dipped down to 30 degrees. Fifteen hours later, she was spotted in a dry creek bad by a helicopter pilot. Victoria was accompanied by her dog, Blue. Pilot Matthew Uhl and medic Eric Tarr, who rescued Victoria, believe Blue kept the child warm and safe from predators.
The dog was protective of the child when they first approached, but when the girl smiled, the dog relaxed.
“I think once the dog realized we were there to help them out, he was very excited,” Uhl said.
“He ran around while the medic tended to the little girl, and when it was time to go, he jumped right into the helicopter and was ready to go.”
Victoria was taken to a hospital for frostbite treatment and was found to be healthy. Link -via Arbroath
The Dolphin Research Center in Marathon, Florida is where people can swim with the well cared-for marine mammals, but it’s much more than that. It’s a rescue operation for not only dolphins, but sea turtles, manatees and other Florida Keys species. When the dolphins aren’t busy with that, or doing their research, they maintain an informative blog, where they post videos of themselves like this one. Amazingly smart creatures.
Seriously though, the DRC is top tier when it comes to places like this. Here’s a snip from Hannah’s five star review on Yelp:
After an afternoon at this terrific research center, I learned more about dolphins than I ever thought I’d know. We came here as a group, with the BF and his parents. For $20 a person, you get admission, which allows you to walk through the center and watch the public shows. The place is very low key – it’s obvious that all their money goes towards taking care of the dolphins,and not on frills.
Link (Photo: DRC)
A kitten was stuck on a concrete ledge high above the ground in Spokane, Washington. 60-year-old Kay Leclaire passed by jogging and heard the cat cry for help. So she decided to climb up and get him. The trapped kitten lucked out, since Leclaire is a champion climber who has scaled Mount Everest and holds a record as the oldest woman to climb the highest peaks on all seven continents. The kitten was adopted almost immediately after his rescue. Link -via Fark
| FEATURED ITEMS FROM THE NEATOSHOP | |
 |
Mustache Bottle Opener |
 |
My Cryptozoological Family - Family Car Stickers |
 |
Zombie Hand Bottle Opener |
View more: New Items &
Best Sellers |
|
