Vomiting Dog Causes Auto Accident

A man has a pretty good excuse for why he crashed his car into a utility pole in Winona: his dog puked on him.

The Winona Daily News reported police found the car unattended last Thursday morning against an Xcel Energy pole. Witnesses told officers they saw a man leaving the area and walking a beagle.

The 18-year-old, who does not have insurance or a Minnesota driver’s license, called police about four hours later to confess.

The man told police he was driving when his dog started “throwing up all over him.” Deputy Police Chief Tom Williams said the story checked out — police found vomit in the car.

The pole had only minor damage. The man was cited for driving without insurance or a license.

Firefighters Rescue Dog From Recliner Chair

Three suburban Chicago firefighters rescued a small dog that became trapped inside a mechanized recliner chair by sawing the piece of furniture apart.

Eighty-seven-year-old owner Ken Makris says his terrier, Ebonyser, has nerve damage following his Thursday night ordeal but that he is “coming along fine.”

Firefighters who responded to an emergency call from the Sunrise of Naperville assisted living center Thursday arrived to find a nurse’s aide hanging onto the chair to relieve the pressure on the dog and allow it to breathe. Firefighter and paramedic Scott Bolda says the chair’s electrical controls stopped working when Ebonyser become wedged inside.

Makris says the 5-year-old pooch is on painkillers but that he was able to go out for a walk Monday.

PetSmart Sued Over Dog Poop

A Poquoson, Virginia man who said he fell after stepping in dog feces at a PetSmart store has filed a $1 million negligence lawsuit against the company.

Robert Holloway alleges in his lawsuit in U.S. District Court that he badly injured his back, struck his head and knocked out four teeth when he slipped in January 2009 at a Newport News PetSmart. He alleges that PetSmart and its manager should have protected him from a hazardous condition created when they allowed animals to defecate on the floor.

In court documents, Phoenix-based PetSmart denied the negligence allegations.

Dog Sentenced To Obedience School

A dog that attacked two Chattanooga police cars has been sentenced to obedience and canine good citizen classes.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reported Winston, a mixed-breed, will also have to wear a tag that says he is “potentially dangerous.” The newspaper said a judge ruled Thursday that charges against the Winston’s owner will be dismissed if the classes are successfully completed.

Owner Nancy Emerling had been given a citation for Winston being a “potentially dangerous dog.”

Emerling previously said Winston got out of a fenced-in area at a welding shop March 14.

By the time staffers from McKamey Animal Care and Adoption Center captured Winston, he had chewed two tires and the entire front bumper off a patrol car.

Injured Dog Walks Into Hospital Emergency Room

The patient was only slightly injured when he limped into a hospital in the northwest New Mexico city of Farmington.

The only problem was, he was a dog. When the automatic doors at San Juan Regional Medical Center’s emergency room slid open, the pooch walked in, blood on his nose and paw, and a puncture hole in one leg.

Animal control officer Robin Loev (LOHV) responded to a call from the hospital and suspects the puncture wound was from the bite of another dog.

Loev says the German shepherd mix appeared to be intelligent and calm — and knew enough to go to the right place.

The animal was taken to the Farmington Animal Shelter and claimed by its owner.

465-Year-Old Dog Steals The Show

 A 16th century dog, the only known female to have served aboard King Henry VIII’s ill-fated flagship the Mary Rose, has stolen the show at Britain’s Crufts dog show this year.

The two-year old mongrel, lost aboard the Tudor warship 465 years ago, is a special guest of the Kennel Club this year, according to the show’s organizers.

The painstakingly reconstructed skeleton, poised on its haunches, acquired the nickname “Hatch” after divers discovered her remains near the sliding hatch door of the Mary Rose’s carpenter’s cabin.

Her remains were found partly inside and outside his quarters suggesting she was trapped there as the huge warship, the pride of the English fleet, keeled over and sank in the Solent off England’s southern coast in mysterious circumstances.

Driver In Doghouse After Walking Dog While In Car

An English dog-owner has been fined after taking his pet for a stroll while driving next to him in his car.

Prosecutors said Paul Railton was spotted driving at low speed along a country lane in December, holding his dog’s leash through the car window as the animal trotted alongside.

Railton pleaded guilty Monday to not being in proper control of a vehicle. His lawyer, Paul Donoghue, said 23-year-old Railton acknowledged “it was a silly thing to do and there was an element of laziness” while exercising his lurcher, a type of crossbred sighthound.

Railton was ordered by magistrates in Consett, northeast England, to pay a 66 pound ($100) fine, plus costs.

He also received three more penalty points on his license and is now barred from driving for six months.

Pack Of Dogs Attack Bulgarian Zoo

A pack of stray dogs leapt the fence of Sofia’s zoo and killed 13 rare animals last week, the zoo director said on Saturday.

Six dogs, probably driven by hunger in temperatures that fell to minus 15 degrees last Saturday, tore to pieces five deer and eight mouflon, zoo director Ivan Ivanov said. Two fallow deer fought the dogs and survived.

Ivanov said the zoo’s fences had since been reinforced and gas pistols issued to security guards.

The Bulgarian capital, home to some two million people, has been plagued by stray dogs for years.

City council officials put their number at about 9,000, and say it has grown since economic crisis hit the European Union’s poorest member state and some people abandoned their pets.

Dog Washed Out To Sea Rescued By Polish Boat

A dog had a lucky escape when a Polish boat rescued him from an ice floe that had carried him more than 100 miles up a river and out onto the icy waters of the Baltic Sea.

“My crew saw… a shape moving on the water and we immediately decided to get closer to check if it was a dog or maybe a seal relaxing on the ice,” Jan Joachim, senior officer aboard the Baltica, told Reuters Television.

“As we got closer to the ice floe we saw that it was a dog struggling not to fall into the water.”

Ship engineer Adam Buczynski managed to scoop the dog off the floe onto an inflatable dinghy and wrapped him in a blanket.

“He didn’t even squeal. There was just fear in his big eyes,” said Buczynski.

The dog was first seen on the ice floe some 100 km (70 miles) inland to the south on the Vistula river but firemen were unable to rescue him. When the Baltica crew found him, he had already drifted some 24 km (18 miles) out to sea.

“We were in the right place at the right time,” said Joachim, noting that they rescued him shortly before night fall.

The crew are now trying to locate the dog’s owner.

Poland is in the grip of bitterly cold weather, with night temperatures in some areas falling as low as -34 Celsius (-31 Fahrenheit).

Police Nab Naked Dog Killer

 A man allegedly killed a dog, ran naked through a tennis club and poured hot coffee on his head before he was finally arrested, Orange County, California sheriff’s deputies said.

Bayron Reyes Lopez, 26, of San Clemente, was hospitalized after being captured at the tennis club where he worked as a maintenance man, sheriff’s spokesman Jim Amormino said.

Deputies got the first call about the man at 4:30 a.m. Wednesday when there were reports of a loud radio at his apartment. Amormino said deputies believe he jumped from a third-story window to get away, and was unhurt.

Just after 6 a.m. Judy Donnelley reportedly called to say a “strange” man had approached her, and when her 5-year-old mini schnauzer named Coco intervened, the man allegedly killed the dog, hitting, choking and “repeatedly beating her on asphalt in front of me.”

“She saved my life,” Donnelley told KCAL-TV. “I don’t know how to thank her.” She put flowers on the street where her dog died.

Minutes later, other callers reported a naked man running through the Rancho San Clemente Tennis Club and pouring hot coffee on his head. That’s where deputies caught up with him, Amormino said.

He was initially hospitalized but “will be, at the least, booked for cruelty to animals,” Amormino said.

He was being tested to determine if he was under the influence of any drugs or narcotics, Amormino added, so other charges were also possible.