I received a few woofs about this happy story.  A bomb training Australian Labrador, Sabi, went missing a year ago in the Afghan desert during the heat of battle.  A few days ago she was   found by an American serviceman and now Sabi is back home on an Australian base at Tarin Kowt.

Here are the details from The Sydney Morning Herald.

The plucky canine had been missing in action for more than a year and all hope appeared lost, given that she had disappeared into the desert landscape of Afghanistan’s south.

She went missing during a battle that led to Australian SAS soldier Trooper Mark Donaldson securing a Victoria Cross for holding out Taliban insurgents.

Nine soldiers were wounded during the encounter, and the party got separated from the dog during the fight.

Sabi was picked up and incarcerated by enemy combatants before her rescue by the US soldier, identified as John.

Back on the base yesterday, Sabi appeared composed and relaxed, posing for cameras and meeting Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and US General Stanley McChrystal.

It’s reported that Sabi is doing fine, no signs of stress.  Welcome home Sabi!

*Photo ADF

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Dogster member Sasha just gave me a bark about a couple in Schaumburg, IL. who were killed in a motorcycle accident leaving their four dogs homeless.

Mike Kelm and his wife Sue went out for a motorcycle ride on Labor Day to enjoy the beautiful weather. And to get out of the house because it was few days before Sue had cancer surgery. Tragically they were both killed when struck by a car. The couple had no children but they do have four dependents, their precious dogs.

While the family grieves over the loss of their loved ones they are trying to honor the couple by finding a new home for all four pups. Here are the details from the Daily Herald.

“They had no children of their own,” the Kelms’ niece Kim Mayer of Joliet said. “These were their children. And as much as people could spoil animals, they did.”

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This story is going to give you chills.  Imagine finding an intruder in your home sitting in your six-year-old daughter’s bedroom. That’s exactly what happened in Cambridge, MN a few days ago to the Treichel family.

Luckily they had adopted Izzy, an Australian Shepherd, from the Aussie Rescue Group of Minnesota in February. A story that could of had a tragic ending turned out okay all because of her.

The Treichel family of Cambridge didn’t need convincing. They’d already fallen in love with Izzy, the Australian Shepherd they adopted in February.

But what Izzy did at 3:00 Sunday morning has earned her family’s gratitude for life.

“She just jumped up on our bed and started growling,” says Maggie Treichel about the unexpected wake-up that greeted her and husband Tom.

Their bedroom door was closed, but Izzy seemed to sense something on the other side.

“She knew something was wrong,” says Maggie.

Within seconds Tom was standing at his daughter’s doorway staring that something in the face. “It was a silhouette of a man sitting in a chair next to my daughter’s bed.”

The stranger had pulled a small chair alongside the bed of now awake and freighted six-year-old Allyson.

“He said how old are you and what your name was and he shook hands with me,” she recalled shyly on Monday afternoon.

Tom turned on the light and soon realized the man seemed pretty scared himself. “I just kept asking him ‘What are you doing in my daughter’s bedroom? What are you doing in my daughter’s bedroom?’ and he just didn’t have anything to say.

Maggie called 9-1-1, while Tom made sure the intruder would be waiting when police arrived. “He made a quick dart for the door but I was standing right by him and I was able to grab him and put him onto the ground and told him he wasn’t going anywhere.”

Officers arrived at the Treichel home within minutes and found Maggie’s camera in the man’s pocket along with some checks stolen from a neighbor.

What a story.  I truly believe when you adopt a rescue they know you saved them.  I think Izzy just returned the favor.

Watch the story on KARE 11

If you don’t see this video in your RSS feed, click here.

*ADOPTABLE: Oreo is a beautiful 13-year-old gal in need of a forever home, she’s at the Aussie Rescue Group of Minnesota. Who wouldn’t want an Oreo?

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This is the almost unbelievable story of a dog that survived on an island all alone for four months. She had fallen overboard when sailing with her family through choppy waters off the northeast Queensland coast in November.

Jan Griffith’s dog Sophie Tucker, apparently named after a late US entertainer, was believed to have drowned after going overboard. Little did the family know, the dog had mastered the doggy  paddle at an early age and had no intention of giving up, or going down without a fight.

Out of sight of the family, Sophie Tucker was swimming doggedly and finally made it to St Bees Island, five nautical miles away, and began the sort of life popularized by the TV reality show “Survivor.”

She was returned to her family last week when Griffith contacted rangers who had captured a dog that had been living off feral goats on the largely uninhabited island, in the faint hope it might be their long-lost pet.

When the Griffiths met the rangers’ boat bringing the dog to the mainland they found that it was indeed Sophie Tucker on board.

“We called the dog and she started whimpering and banging the cage and they let her out and she just about flattened us,” Griffith told the national AAP news agency.

“She wriggled around like a mad thing.”

Griffith said that when the dog was first spotted on the island she had been in poor condition.

“And then all of a sudden she started to look good and it was when the rangers had found baby goat carcasses so she’d started eating baby goats,” she said.

Sophie Tucker has readjusted quickly to life with her family, and life’s little luxuries, such as air conditioning. I have the feeling she’s also thrilled to go back to her old menu and won’t be in the mood for a Gyro sandwich for a while, if you get my drift. Baaaaaa!

*Pic of Sophie Tucker AFP – A handout photo by Jan Griffith

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Well, not exactly.  A suburban Seattle, WA woman registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix, Duncan, to vote. Jane Balogh wanted to expose a loophole in the law  which makes voter registration so easy that any person, or dog, could be added to the voter rolls.

Jane Balogh (BAY’-loh) had been charged with making a false statement but entered into a plea agreement last year. A King County judge dismissed the charge Monday after Balogh showed that she had paid $240 in court costs and completed community service.

I wonder how long Duncan was sentenced to the doghouse for his part in this scheme?

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