Dog & Goose are Troublemakers 🩵

<sub>“Happiness is a warm puppy.”
- Charles Shulz</sub>

🪿 Dog & Goose are Partners in Crime

⚾️ Bat Dog Plays Final Inning

🐾 Incredible Pets of The Past

💰 $75 Lotto Winner (at bottom) 

^Heartwarmers
Dog n’ Goose are Partners in Crime
 

• Jim was a farm goose surrendered to a dog kennel.

• That’s where he was adopted by Hope Haven Farm Sanctuary - a place that rescues abandoned farm animals.

• Jim tried to fit in with the other geese, but it just didn’t work… then he met a dog named Richard.

• As you’ll see in the video below, Richard and Jim are a match made in heaven.

^News
Front Page Pets

Layla’s Last At-Bat

• A few years ago, Layla went viral for retrieving her dad a can of beer from the fridge.

• That video grabbed the attention of The Phillies’ minor league baseball team, and she was asked to be their official bat dog.

• Her job was to retrieve baseball bats and bring them back to the dugout after her team members left the batter’s box.

• After serving her team faithfully for years, Layla crossed the batter’s box for the final time. Watch fans and team members celebrate her final retrieval in the video below. ❣️

Pilots to The Rescue
^{Saving souls across the nation}

Pilots to The Rescue is an organization that transports dogs from kill shelters to no-kill shelters.

• They literally fly to pick up animals and transport them to shelters where they will be safe to live their lives and get adopted.

• So far, they have saved 415 souls from leaving this earth too soon.

• We just wanted to share their amazing work with you.

Before sharing their video, we want to mention that you can support this rescue mission and others like it by joining the Lola & Herbie Club.

What is The Lola & Herbie Club?

• The Lola & Herbie Club is how you can support our contributors, community, and animal welfare efforts.

• As a club member, you’ll receive exclusive club content each week.

• A portion of your subscription is donated to animal shelters and rescue missions.

• We’ll gather stories from the shelters that your contribution helps and share those stories each Friday.
   

Now, let’s learn a little more about Pilots to The Rescue & the amazing work they do.
 

^{More Cuteness}
Our Favorite Finds This Week

^{Hot off the press!}
More Pet News
 

Desert Stray Follows Marathon Runner for 100s of Miles
^{(and he adopts her)}

• In the middle of the Gobi desert in China, a dog tagged along at the heels of Dion Leonard.

• It was a 155-mile, seven-day race, and the little dog nipped at Dion’s shoes just before the starter pistol blew.

• She ran alongside him all the way to the finish line, and Dion says it was a life-changing moment for him to help the dog get along even at the risk of losing the lead.

Community Rallies for Grocery Store Cat

• Mickey is a staple of his community, serving as the resident mouser and mood-booster at his local grocery store.

• Despite overwhelming love & support, one customer called to report Mickey and had him removed from the store.

• As you can see in this video, his community wants to do whatever they can to get him back in the store so he can serve his purpose and make the community a better place.

U.S. Updates Dog Entry Requirements
^(Again)

• The CDC added stringent requirements for dogs entering the United States in May.

• These requirements have loosened a little bit as of last week, but only when bringing dogs in from countries that don’t have significant rabies outbreaks.

• Click here to learn more about the new updates and whether or not you’ll be affected.

Ottawa Owners Reunited with Missing Cat
^{(after 8 years!)}

• Nearly a decade ago, Indie strode out her front door and never came back, leaving her family devastated.

• She turned up in a shelter last week, and was only identified because she had a microchip that linked her back to her owners.

• The family brought her home after a tearful reunion.
   

_{^{Tails that stand the test of time.}}
Amazing Pets of The Past

Animals do incredible things all the time. This is proven by the unimaginable number of viral animal videos that come out every minute of every hour of the day.

Still, videos come and go along with the stories they tell. It’s rare for stories about pets and animals to stay in our minds for very long.

—Trust us, we sift through thousands of videos, articles, and images every year in search of the most powerful things to share with you all — there’s no way we could possibly recall them all!

There are three stories below, all of which tell the tale of exceptional animals who achieved amazing things and deserve to be remembered for their efforts.

Smoky Saved 250 Lives
^{And 40 Planes in WW2}

In the midst of World War 2, three American squadrons had lost communication with their commanders in the Philippines.

Waves of plane attacks had damaged a telephone line that stretched 70 feet through an underground pipe, and the only way to fix it was for groups of men to dig deep trenches, lay the wire, and pile the dirt back on.

This wasn’t an option, as the job would expose dozens of men in the middle of an active battlefield. Still, without communication, all of those men were as good as gone — they were sitting ducks, as they say.

Enter Smoky: a four-pound Yorkshire Terrier, standing only 7 inches tall.
 

Smoky’s owner knew how intelligent she was, and he had faith in her abilities. He suggested that the commanders rest their trust on Smoky’s tiny little back.

They tied a kite string to Smoky’s collar and directed her down the 7-inch-wide pipe. Her owner, William Wynne, sat on the opposite end calling her forward through 70 feet of darkness.

Eventually, little Smoky emerged and the squadrons were able to feed a telephone line over the kite string that she ran through the tunnel, re-establishing lines of communication.

It’s estimated that Smoky’s efforts saved 240 lives and 40 planes.

She became something of a celebrity after that, igniting American interest in the Yorkshire breed and learning amazing skills such as parachuting, spelling her name, and much more.

Unsinkable Sam
^{Survived 3 Military Shipwrecks}

Cats are supposed to have 9 lives, but most times they lose one of those lives by falling from trees or narrowly escaping encounters with dogs.

Oscar earned his stripes by surviving three shipwrecks — shipwrecks wrought from the seas of World War 2, no less.
 

Oscar (a.k.a. Unsinkable Sam) was first found floating in the wreckage of the German battleship Bismark on May 27th, 1941.

A British officer picked him out of the sea and brought him aboard the British destroyer HMS Cossack. This is where he got his name “Oscar,” as the letter “O” is code for “Man Overboard.”

He spent the Summer sailing the Mediterranean until October 24th when HMS Cossack was struck by a german torpedo and sank, leaving Oscar in the wreckage once again. This time, British officers brought him ashore and took him aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Ark Royal.

Ironically, HMS Ark Royal had been instrumental in his first wreck on the Bismark. His new ship the HMS Ark Royal (you guessed it) was also struck by a torpedo and sank.

Unsinkable Sam, though, managed to make it out unscathed. Reports say he was a little “angry, but quite unharmed.”

This ended his seafaring days, and he spent the rest of his life in a seaside home in Belfast.

The portrait of him (above) now hangs in the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich.

The Dog Who Saved a Town
^{1,400 lives saved}

 
In the winter of 1925, an epidemic of diphtheria hit the remote town of Nome, Alaska. This is a deadly disease, and at the time there was no vaccine — only a serum that could minimize symptoms and save the patient’s life.

The nearest town with a train station was almost 700 miles away, and the trip by train took around a month. Winters in Alaska can be brutal, eliminating the option of traveling with the cars of the 1920s.

The only option was to utilize the abilities of creatures bred to travel in the snow — sled dogs.

The plan to save the town rested on a relay of 20 mushers and 150 sled dogs. They would face 50mph winds in freezing temperatures and an overall journey of more than 5 days straight. At each stop, the musher would hand off the life-saving serum to the next group without missing a beat.

Balto Led The Last Leg
 

 
The lead sled dog of the final stretch of this arduous trek through snowy mountains in -40 degree weather was Balto.

There were times when the musher couldn’t even see Balto and his pack members through the thick white blizzard. Still, Balto led the pack and pressed on, arriving in Nome in the nick of time.

They passed the serum on to the physician in Nome, and the town was saved. While Balto got all of the fame for this trek, there are 149 other dogs and 20 mushers who deserve the glory as well.

^{A breakdown:}
Last Week’s Poll Results

“What was your favorite part?”

• Laura the Blind Pittie was last week’s fan-favorite, followed by the history of guide dogs.

• It looks as though all of you fell in love with Laura, so be sure to take a look at last week’s issue if you missed it!

Reply to the poll below to enter into next week’s $75 visa gift card lotto.

^{Share this newsletter, get stylish prizes!}
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