The honor goes to…..Chi Chi, the temperamental Chihuahua. Chi Chi is the winner of the Reader’s Digest Hero Pet of the Year award for helping save two ladies from drowning.

I watched this story on the Today Show and I noticed none of the hosts were standing close to Chi Chi while they did the interview. Apparently Chi Chi is a little protective and no one wanted to take any chances. I’m sure the fact that he bared his teeth at the hosts probably didn’t help.

Here’s the story from Today at msnbc.com.

By sounding a yipping alarm on a North Carolina beach, Chi Chi likely saved the lives of two senior citizens overcome by waves – and was crowned Reader’s Digest Hero Pet of the Year in the process.

Chi Chi appeared humble – if a bit standoffish – in his national TV debut Tuesday, appearing on Rockefeller Plaza as his owners, Rick and Mary Lane, told TODAY’s Matt Lauer and Ann Curry how their pint-size prize rose to the occasion in a big way when danger loomed.

Mary Lane said it was a typical day at the beach for the family last October. She and Rick were relaxing on beach chairs at Indian Beach on North Carolina’s Outer Banks while Chi Chi rested on his own chair – restrained, of course, since he tends to chase after other beachgoers.

“He leapt out of his beach chair, still attached, dragging the beach chair, and he started sending out an alarm,” Lane told TODAY. “He was making a sound we never heard before. Rick said, ‘Hey, what’s the matter with the dog?’ ”

It turned out nothing was the matter with Chi Chi – but there was danger some 100 yards down the beach, where Mary Lane spotted a horrific sight.

“There was a storm surge, and there were two elderly ladies – one had fallen on her back headfirst into the surf,” she said. “The other lady – a little bitty lady about 90 pounds – was trying to hold her head up, and she was in danger of being washed out.”

The Lanes rushed to pull the ladies out of the riptide, and after determining the pair were shaken but otherwise fine, returned to their spot on the beach – to find Chi Chi happily sleeping in doggy dreamworld in his chair.

The Lanes were amazed that their pampered pet could sound an alarm of danger, bellowing out strange yips that “would not let us ignore him,” Mary Lane said. And readers of Reader’s Digest were so impressed by Chi Chi’s story they voted him Hero Pet of the Year.

Chi Chi can perhaps be forgiven his temperament in light of his early life: He was rescued as an abused dog by the Lanes’ niece when he was just a pup. Now he’s a local celebrity in the Lanes’ native Greensboro, with newspaper coverage and his gray-white mug posted in his veterinarian’s office. “Everyone recognizes him,” Mary Lane said with pride.

What a great story, way to go Chi Chi.

* Pic courtesy Today

Take, for instance, yesterday. I knew I needed to clean out the turd-laden kitty litter box but put it off. Later, when it was time to feed the kids (Bo, Copper and Logan), I came upon a nice wet poo of the feline variety. Moose sat in the corner with a look that said, “Take that!”

When I went to throw the kitty litter box into the garbage bag, I misjudged it and dumped the whole shebang on the floor.  Hey, I had it coming.

So I was happy to see that it goes the other way too.

What follows is a touching tale of a lost dog, a found family and karmic payback.

PORT TAMPA, Fla. — Yolanda Segovia heard a knock on her door one morning, just before 8 a.m.

Her neighbor was on the porch, with a dog and a story.

Stacey Savige had found the little dog in front of an elementary school. He wasn’t very big, looked like some sort of terrier. Burrs clung to his belly. His honey fur was caked in mud.

He didn’t have a collar. Stacey had taken him to the vet and he didn’t have a chip, either.

Now Stacey had to go to work. Could Yolanda keep him?

“You can leave the dog here,” Yolanda told Stacey. “But just for today.”

They took photos of the dog and made a FOUND flier. Stacey ran off 4,000 color copies. She and Yolanda stuffed mailboxes, put ads on Craigslist.

Yolanda took her boys to the dollar store and bought a collar, leash, ball and brown bed. Her 10-year-old, Azaiah, decided to call the dog RaeLee, pronounced “Riley.” He said he had heard it on TV. All afternoon, he walked the dog, threw the ball, laughed while the dog licked his face.

“Don’t fall in love with him,” Yolanda kept warning.

Her elder son, Christian, 21, watched through the window. Christian has Down syndrome and an array of other ailments. He has had heart surgery, a kidney transplant. He can’t speak or bathe himself.

That night, when the boys climbed into their bunk beds, the dog dragged his new bed from Yolanda’s living room, down the long hall, into their room.

Four days later, they still had the dog. He was starting to answer to his new name.

He loved roughhousing with Azaiah, knew to be gentle with Christian. He almost never barked.

On Saturday, Azaiah went to his dad’s house. Christian retreated to his room to watch a Barney video. The dog dozed beside him.

Yolanda had just stepped onto her porch to water the plants when the dog flung himself into the screen door, barking madly.

As she opened the door, the dog sprinted across the living room, into the boys’ room.

Yolanda screamed. Christian was slumped over, his body writhing in a seizure, blood streaming from his nose and mouth.

The dog ran to the boy, still yelping. But as soon as Yolanda bent to cradle her son, the dog went silent.

“If he hadn’t come to get me,” Yolanda told Stacey later, “the neurologist said Christian would have choked on his own blood and died.”

Since no one had claimed the dog, Yolanda decided to keep him.

You’ll have to read the rest at this link to find out how this story ends. Let’s just say I could roast marshmallows on my heart right about now.

Photo courtesy of the Associated Press.

Police dogs put their lives on the line everyday to help serve and protect. In return they do not always get the recognition and respect they deserve, especially when retired. One such dog is Cee, a police dog who has worked with Sgt. Eddie Rodrique III for the last 10 years. 

Cee is about to retire and would normally be sent to the Lafourche jail to live out his golden years. Rodrique can’t bear for this to happen and has appealed to the town to let him adopt the dog. On Tuesday the city council will decide whether to allow him to buy Cee for $1. I will be appalled if the answer is not yes.

I was just reading an article about British police dogs and a new plan to help ensure their golden years are happy ones.

 It’s easy to forget the contributions that police dogs provide for their handlers, but police across the pond in Cambridgeshire, UK, have devised a plan to ensure that their police dogs are taken care of. Starting later this year, police dogs will begin receiving pensions to cover their care once they retire. How’s that for socialist health insurance?

In the past, retired British police dogs were taken care of by their handlers or given up for adoption. But members of the force wanted to find a way to recognize the public service that the dogs had provided.

“They serve us for seven or eight years as good police dogs and often only have two years retirement to enjoy, so it’s only right to provide for them during this time,” dog unit sergeant Steve Krawczy told the Daily Mail. “So we put together a package for the dogs. It covers the retired dog’s food, vaccinations and worming, vet bills, as well as complementary therapy.”

 What a great idea, two big paws up for our friends across the pond.

* Pic of Piper ready for action.

A Pork Chop saved a life in this case anyway. A man visiting his daughter was saved by her beagle when the dog started howling after he collapsed.

SARATOGA SPRINGS, N.Y. — “Lately I call him Hero, you know, you’re my Hero,” said June Argenti. “He’s not Pork Chop anymore.”

It’s a deserving nick name for a heroic dog. The nine-year-old beagle mix, otherwise known as Pork Chop, saved 71-year-old Nick Argenti over the weekend.

“I really feel that he was meant to be here,” said Nick’s daughter Kellie Germadnik.

She said her father was working in the garden when he suddenly collapsed. That’s when Pork Chop started howling and neighbors responded, jumping over fences and calling 911.

“I’m very glad. Barbara said she’s had enough dogs in her life to know that it wasn’t a normal bark. She knew there was something wrong,” said Germadnik.

Off camera, Nick and the neighbors say if it wasn’t for the dog, things could have turned tragic.

I think Pork Chop deserves a pork chop, way to go.

* Photo courtesy Capital News 9

If only the firefighter who shot his dogs owned the one in this story. Now that would have been poetic justice at its best.

Berlin, June 23: A dog in Germany shot by a drunken man with a gun took swift revenge by biting off the end of the man’s nose, authorities said on Monday.

Police said the armed man was snooping at night in the yard of a house in Stadtlauringen in northern Bavaria when he shot the Bernese mountain dog from point-blank range.

Before collapsing, the dog leapt at the 39-year-old man and bit off the end of his nose, a local police spokesman said.

Bleeding profusely, the man called police and was taken for treatment in a nearby hospital. His motives for being in the yard were unclear, police said.

Doctors removed a bullet from the dog’s shoulder and discharged it from a clinic after an operation lasting several hours.

Someone give that boy a bratwurst.

* No pic of the dog hero so this is Dogster member Bonnie representing Berners everywhere.