A Canadian canine turns a near tragedy into a world record.

Striker, a 10-year-old border collie from Quebec City, set a new Guinness world record for rolling down a car window.

Striker managed to lower the window in 11 seconds. That’s two seconds faster than the previous record, which he also set.

The dog originally learned the trick in order to save his own skin.

He rolled down his car window when his owner accidentally locked him in a hot car along with his keys.

It only took four long legs and two giant ears to put a smile back on my husband’s face.

We didn’t visit Mickey Mouse at Disney World; we welcomed a new dog to our life.

It’s only been weeks since Sowebo passed away, and I still start to call her name and have this feeling that she is going to walk up the front steps with her tongue hanging out any day now.

When she died, we struggled over when to find a new dog. My husband was most worried about replacing her too fast. I was concerned about the responsibility of a chewing, hopping, growing puppy.

Those very valid fears were washed away as soon as we saw a tiny face with gorgeous markings.

Knowing that I had been wanting a third dog, I had begun checking out online listings sooner than my husband could have handled.

It is hard to say no to the homeless dogs and the little stories that each profile tells. I want to take them all home, but the right dog is important for the long haul.

We have an 8-year-old Pekingese who is my baby, and I knew she wouldn’t want to take on a new sibling who was too rambunctious or domineering. We also had to consider having human children some day. Did I want an adult dog that came from an abusive situation?

It’s hard to think “puppy” with those sad adult faces staring at me, but then I found her. She and her three sisters were found tied to a tree in a park. They were brought to the animal shelter, only to be rescued quickly by a local group that fosters dogs.

I stared at her photo for days. She looked a little like Sowebo, and I even found Jack checking out her photo on his own.

When a puppy becomes available, it’s not for long. I didn’t want to hesitate but didn’t want to rush into a 15-year relationship without proper consideration.

A few calls put me in touch with the foster mom. She offered to let me see the puppies that very day. After work, I stopped by to find four squirmy girls vying for attention.

They always say to choose the dog that comes to you, and it wasn’t hard to figure that one out. The blonde one I had my eye on walked over to my lap and laid down for a nap.

“Why don’t you take her home for the night so your husband can get to know her?” the foster mom asked.

The thought thrilled me but also freaked me out. I didn’t want to blindside my grieving husband. Yet, I couldn’t say no to such a precious babydoll.

I placed her safely in the car and headed home, making sure to beat Jack home.

My husband walked in with an, “Oh, no. What did you do?”

We took her to the park, and it didn’t take too long for the oohs and ahhs to sway him toward keeping her. It wasn’t until later that night, though, when I found him sleeping with her asleep on his chest that I knew our new girl was here to stay.

After a week of debating names and getting too much input from her new relatives, we decided to commemorate our recent trip to Italy and our favorite local bar, Dizzy Issie’s. We chose Isabella, aka Issie.

Isabella is a growing mix of whatever breeds we think of that day. Some days she looks like a dingo, others a German shepherd mix, for about a week a Husky-huahua, if that even exists. All I am certain of is that she is beautiful, and people around me support that opinion.

The first month of Issie’s life she had the cutest little floppy ears on her 6-pound body. Then one day I came home from work and my baby had giant stiff ears that now only droop when she’s running really fast.

She loves the park, other dogs and especially people. The moment I step out of the room, she follows.

I have heard this from other rescue dog owners, and I really believe that rescues love attention even more than their purebred peers. I know that by choosing her I will have her love for as long as she can give it.

It has been an adjustment for LuLu, who went from confused by Sowebo’s disappearance to soaking up her newfound single-child status. She has done her part to put Issie’s baby teeth in their place, but that actually helps Issie learn her limits.

The amazing side effect is that LuLu is more outgoing than ever. She used to cringe when strangers would try to pet her, especially children. This past weekend she let two toddlers pet her face without a sign of fear.

As for Jack and me, we are adjusting to life with a puppy. She wakes us up with her whines in the middle of the night when she has to go out to the bathroom. She also loves to put anything in her mouth, which includes not only sticks but dog poop and other nasty treats.

She is not Sowebo, and that’s how we want it to be. If she ends up just as sweet and loving, we will always be happy that she chose us.

For nine agonizing minutes, Gresham resident Barbara Belgrave struggled to breathe while trapped on the second story of her burning house until Gresham firefighters rescued her early Sunday, July 15.

“I didn’t think I was gonna make it, to be totally honest,” said Barbara, 51, over a cellular phone the day after flames destroyed her house and nearly killed her.

Barbara was sound asleep in her upstairs bedroom in the 1300 block of Southwest Walters Drive when her 12-pound cat, Cheba, pounced on her at 4:39 a.m.

Cheba has a bad habit of jumping on the bed and startling Barbara in the middle of the night, so she installed a baby gate in her bedroom door to prevent such rude awakenings.

But early Sunday, Barbara woke to the thud of Cheba jumping on her.

“She knew something was wrong,” Barbara said. “I really think that God worked through her.”

Thick smoke had filled the bedroom. Barbara closed the bedroom door and went to let some fresh air in through a window.

“In front of the house everything was lit up, just glowing,” she said. “I knew the house was on fire.”

She opened the window, but more smoke billowed in, so she slammed it shut. With her husband, Scott, away at work, Barbara weighed her options.

The woman has an imploded vertebra due to a car accident and uses a cane to get around.

“So I knew that if I jumped out the window, I’d break my back again for sure,” she said.

Grabbing the phone, she tried to call 9-1-1, but the line was dead.

Luckily, Barbara’s purse, containing her cellular phone, was in the bedroom.

What took place next is captured on a chilling, heart-stopping 9-1-1 tape.

Coughing, Barbara told the dispatcher that her house was on fire.

“It’s coming up through the floor,” Barbara said, referring to smoke floating up the air vents. “… I’m having trouble breathing. Everything’s getting black.”

Calmly, the dispatcher told Barbara to shove blankets under the bedroom door.

“I know that you’re trapped, you cannot get out of the window?” the dispatcher asked.

“I have a broken back,” Barbara explained.

The dispatcher told her to lay on the floor.

“Please hurry,” Barbara pleaded. “I can’t hardly breathe.”

She heard glass popping and household items breaking around her. Also, she heard her cat, which she’d trapped in the bedroom with her when she closed the bedroom door. The animal, too, struggled for breath.

The dispatcher reassured Barbara that firefighters were on the way and told her to breathe through a cloth, like a T-shirt. Barbara had already gripped her bed sheet over her mouth, hoping it would act as some sort of smoke filter.

“Oh please hurry,” Barbara moaned, panic creeping into her voice.

The lights went out and the sound of breaking glass grew closer. Barbara felt the floor radiating heat.

“I hear all kinds of things breaking, I’m so scared,” she cried.

Hot smoke seared her lungs and burned her eyes.

Barbara and the dispatcher talked about maybe moving toward the back of the house, where a police officer was standing by.

“The door’s hot,” Barbara said, touching her closed bedroom door. “I better not open it, I’m too afraid.”

“OK, good choice,” the dispatcher assured her.

Knowing firefighters were on the way, Barbara moved to the window but only saw flames. Although she told the dispatcher where she was – her window was the one above the first garage – Barbara opened the shades so firefighters would know what window to go to.

Then she scrambled back to the floor in the hopes of finding more oxygen.

Meanwhile, her cat came out of hiding and Barbara grabbed it.

“I can’t breathe,” she said just as firefighters pulled up. “I’ve got my cat right here, too. Please hurry.”

Per the firefighters’ instructions relayed through the dispatcher, Barbara went to the window.

“They’re coming to me now,” she said.

The tape picks up the sound of firefighters Peter Graves and Lt. Rick Sieverson banging on the window.

Barbara opened it.

“Come on ma’am,” one of the firefighters said,

“Take the cat,” Barbara replied, shoving Cheba into the man’s arms. Panicked, the cat jumped away and scurried off.

Barbara made it to fresh air and solid ground, where paramedics treated her by giving her oxygen.

She got out just in time.

“I think I had one or two minutes and that was it because I wasn’t hardly breathing at all when they finally got me out,” Barbara said.

Gresham Fire Inspector Robert Mottice said the electrical fire caused about $350,000 damage to the $400,000 house, and destroyed an estimated $150,000 in contents.

“It’s toast,” Barbara said, adding that what’s still standing will most likely be knocked down and rebuilt. The house is insured.

She said a faulty electrical strip that powered the home’s computer and associated electronics likely sparked the fire, which started in the house’s first-floor office, located below and next to the bedroom Barbara was trapped in.

Ironically, Barbara’s husband works as an industrial electrician.

The two are staying with his parents in North Portland. It will take at least six months for them to rebuild their home, but they plan to stay in Gresham.

On Monday, a day after the fire, Barbara’s eyes and lungs still burned. But she was counting her blessings and dubbed her rescue a miracle.

She talked about the “phenomenal” 9-1-1 dispatcher who helped her through it all.

“I’m hoping to meet her sometime,” Barbara said.

And she credited Gresham’s well-trained firefighters.

And she is indebted to her cat, which in another ironic twist, sparked a fire a month ago that caused $10,000 damage to the living room. Cheba knocked over an electric heat gun used in crafting, accidentally turning it on.

Barbara hopes to find the cat, a grey kitty with white paws and chest and is implanted with a microchip that can be used to locate its owners.

Meanwhile, Barbara is stopping by the ruins of her charred home and putting out cat food to draw Cheba from out of hiding.

“She’s out there someplace, I just don’t know where yet,” Barbara said.

Jill Logan’s hearty affection for pooches and people speaks through the wet, sloppy kisses that Gypsy — her red-nose American pit bull terrier — lavishes on perfect strangers.

Every Friday for three years, the chocolate-colored canine has been her sweet-natured ambassador at the St. Lucie Surgery Center in Port St. Lucie.

Here, Logan is the administrator. Gypsy’s photo ID badge reads: “Pup-Lick Relations.”

The friendly dog chases away worries for children awaiting a tonsillectomy and fears from adults needing hernia repairs or a routine colonoscopy.

A wag of her tail or a stroke of her coat is also good medicine for family and friends as they nervously watch the clock over a loved one.

“When people come in, they are very stressed,” says Logan, 57, of Palm City. “They’re scared. They’re nervous about their surgery. Although we try to make the lobby homey, it’s still a sterile environment.

“But Gypsy takes their mind off their fears for a little while. She just really helps to relax people.”

After making her rounds, Gypsy retreats to Logan’s office, where her efforts are rewarded with a comfy doggie bed, chew toys and food and drink. A cookie jar shaped like a fire hydrant holds her favorite treats.

But this dog’s life wasn’t always so grand.

Three years ago, she was scared, hungry and homeless. Logan was leaving work one night when she spotted a little critter on the loose in the parking lot. To her surprise, the 6-month-old pup scampered right up to her.

No one claimed her after Logan ran a classified ad or recognized her photograph in nearby neighborhoods. Rather than abandon her at the local animal shelter, Logan and her husband decided to adopt the pooch, whose kind has a bad name.

“Pit bulls have such a horrible reputation, but they are really wonderful dogs,” Logan says. “I did a lot of research and found their temperament is almost on the same level as a golden retriever.”

Because she was a stray, the dog was christened Gypsy. She was people-friendly, calm and not prone to barking. So it was an easy decision one Friday when Logan, having no one at home to watch Gypsy, brought her new pet to work.

“From the time she first got here, she just acted like she belonged here,” Logan says.

State-certified volunteer

Gypsy soon won the hearts of staffers and doctors. When patients saw her in the receptionist’s cubicle, they begged to touch her, and the allure of the little dog spread through the waiting room.

Today, Gypsy is a state-certified doggie volunteer. She has an official ID badge and personnel file with a clean bill of health, vaccinations and obedience training. Her mug shot appears on the surgery center’s Web site as a pet therapy dog.

Recently, Bill Meuser and family members met Gypsy while his wife, Gloria, had a cancerous growth removed from her foot. The pooch was immediately attracted to his granddaughter’s boyfriend and mopped his face with sloppy kisses.

Suddenly, the quiet, somber room erupted into laughter.

“The pit bull doesn’t have a reputation for making people feel at ease,” says Meuser, 79, of Port St. Lucie. “But you couldn’t ask for a nicer dog.”

With a grin, he adds, “I don’t think my granddaughter is ever going to kiss her boyfriend again.”

Meuser’s daughter, Broward resident Jennifer Norman, patted the dog with approval.

“I think it’s super,” she said. “I’ve never heard anything negative from animals being involved in helping people through difficult times. I think it’s good therapy.”

Logan’s history of helping humans and critters started long before Gypsy entered her life. For several years, she’s been a supporter of the St. Lucie County Sheriff’s Office K-9 Unit.

Eight years ago, she launched an in-house pet show for staffers and physicians at the surgery center. As the new administrator, she hoped the sharing of animals would bond employees and build camaraderie between departments.

When she read the K-9 unit needed bulletproof vests, Logan targeted the event as a good cause and fund-raiser, too. Local merchants donated prizes for raffles, and together with other contributions she raised $250.

“We had cats, birds, dogs and turtles,” she says. “One doctor even brought his little pet hedgehog.”

The pet show was such a hit that it became an annual tradition. Through word of mouth in the medical community, the attendance grew larger as friends, family and employees from local doctor offices and the St. Lucie Medical Center joined the festivities.

Three years ago, Logan’s brainchild went public.

In May, the eighth annual Yappy Hour was the most successful ever, with $4,000 raised for the sheriff’s K-9 unit.

More than 250 people attended with more than 100 dogs for an afternoon of pet-oriented fun. The event featured dog-and-owner look-alike contests and raffles, a pet psychic and doggie vendors, including representatives from a boutique and day care.

Local animal shelters came to solicit pet adoptions. A kissing booth for the brave was staffed by Cowboy the St. Bernard, Dino the great dane and Emma the boxer. The K-9 unit wowed the crowd with demonstrations of obedience, attack, drug detection and pursuit.

“We’ve just had a great time getting to know the deputies and dogs and appreciate how much they do for us every day,” Logan says. “I’ve always been impressed with the dogs’ unbelievable ability to learn. And to team that up with an event where folks can bring their dogs for an outing couldn’t be better.”

Logan honored for work

Yappy Hour has raised nearly $18,000, including a special gift from Logan. In 2005, she won a community service award for her K-9 fund-raisers, along with $1,000 to a charity of her choice from the Hospital Corp. of America’s East Florida Division.

Sgt. Tony Cavallaro of the sheriff’s K-9 unit says the annual fund-raisers have been a plus for his department.

Last year, the K-9 unit bought a German shepherd named Basil for $3,500 as an explosive-detection dog.

“A deputy’s best friend is a canine who keeps him safe,” Cavallaro says. “A canine’s best friend are people like Jill Logan and her staff whose support is an inspiration.”

Soon, Gypsy may have a new partner at the surgery center. Lola, an 8-week-old English bulldog puppy, recently joined the Logan family.

Will she be another member of Pup-Lick Relations?

“Maybe she’ll join her big sister when she’s a little older,” Logan says. “It depends on how her temperament develops. She’ll have to be house-trained, at the very least.”

The new University of Oklahoma Press biography of George Miksch Sutton, Norman’s favorite birdman, mentions the help he got from the Cleveland County Bird Club.

It’s now the Cleveland County Audubon Society, but this column is about the earlier days.

In the early 1960s the State Highway Department (now Transportation Department) was about to let a contract to reroute State Highway 9 going east from Norman. Highway 9 was an extension of Alameda Avenue then, and its path would take it right into the lake the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation was going to build — Lake Thunderbird.

For several years we would call the new stretch of road New Nine.

State engineers liked a path south of the university and apparently it was pretty well along with the planning before the Bird Club heard about it. Members learned the proposed paving would go right through Oliver’s Woods, a wildlife refuge belonging to OU.

The Woods was said to be the only land for miles around that was just the way nature laid it out. Neither farmer’s plow nor woodsman’s ax had altered its pristine presence.

The Bird Club had no more than 100 members, but they were fighters. They made their objections known in no uncertain terms.

The odds were long against them at first with plans already approved by both state and local officials. The Bird Club began a program to change the odds and made remarkable progress. Much of their support came from teachers and students who had used the Woods in their studies.

I believe the club’s president may have been Lovie Whitaker, wife of an OU journalism professor. At least she was a leading debater. Grace Ray, another journalism prof, used to bring fire-eating press releases to The Transcript.

Stories went out to newspapers all over the state and editors who had never heard of Oliver’s Woods before became among its strongest supporters.

The Bird Club eventually got enough backing to let New Nine touch only the northern tip of Oliver’s Woods.

The Bird Club, even after it became the local Audubon Society, did not limit its campaigns to Cleveland County or even the United States. A few years after the Oliver’s Woods debate Whitaker learned that the Quetzal bird, considered the most beautiful bird in the hemisphere, was in danger of extermination.

There was probably not one of those birds closer to Norman than southern Mexico, but that didn’t keep the society from taking action. Cloud forests the bird needed were being destroyed.

The Society passed a resolution and developed a plan of action that aroused the interest of ornithologists everywhere.

Man’s best friend helped save a tiny cat.

A 15-day-old female panther named Milica has been adopted by a Rhodesian Ridgeback after her mother refused to feed her and tried to kill her in the Belgrade Zoo.

“The mother panther has killed all her cubs since 1999,” zookeeper Dragan Jovanovic said.

“We believe she has been traumatized by the sound of NATO bombs” during airstrikes in the Serbian capital intended to stop former President Slobodan Milosevic’s crackdown against ethnic Albanian separatists in 1999, he said.

Now Milica fights with several newborn puppies over milk from her adopted mother. She also appears to enjoy every bit of attention she gets from her new family.

A baby chihuahua (puppy) born in Japan with a heart-shaped pattern on his coat becomes a national idol (see video) - almost like the Japanese version of Knut.

A puppy named “Heart-kun” was born with a heart-shaped pattern on his coat.

Born at a Dog shop in Japan, no make-up or modification has been added to the one-and-a-half-month old dog.

The shop owner Emiko Sakurada said this is for the first time a puppy with these marks has been born out of over a 1,000 she has bred.

She says the unusual feature in the puppy has brought good luck to her and anyone who sees him.

Though many people have enquired about buying the dog from around the country after local television aired pictures of it, the owner says she has no plans to sell it.

A pooch named Eli is being trained as a rescue dog, and the first person he’s helping is his trainer.

Tracy Tillman works at a shelter operated for nearly 30 years by the Humane Society of the Branson Tri-Lakes Area. The shelter takes in about 2,000 dogs and cats each year, and through the persistent efforts of volunteers, they are able to place more than half of those animals, said board member Tricia Krause.

Last fall, Tillman went to a home where a German shepherd had a litter of 10 mixed-breed puppies. The shelter was full at the time, but volunteers were able to place three of the puppies — including Eli.

“He came right up and played with me,” Tillman said. “I had to pick him.”

The rest of the pups eventually had to be put down, Tillman said.

Now, with the help of Strafford animal trainer Gary LaFollette, Eli is being trained for search-and-rescue as well as detecting explosives.

“He could have been destroyed, but instead, he’s going to be saving lives,” Tillman said.

For Tillman, working with Eli has been “humbling,” he said. “Learning to train him has given me a new interest in training myself.”

Tillman recently completed his high school general equivalency degree.

It’s a requirement to become a certified animal control officer, which is Tillman’s goal, he said.

Providing an animal control officer to work with Stone County law enforcement is among the Humane Society’s future goals, Krause said.

Shelter manager Sandi Rakestraw is certified in animal control, and also has inspired Tillman.

Training dogs for law enforcement has become a booming business, especially following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said Gary LaFollette. He and his wife, Tonya, own the LaFollette Training Canine Center in Strafford.

Over the past nine years, he’s trained about 200 dogs for law enforcement agencies or private companies. The greatest demand is for dogs to detect narcotics and explosives. Such a dog can sell for as much as $4,500, he said.

He also trains those who will handle the dogs, and has traveled to several states and other countries. While his wife was dealing with the aftermath of this winter’s ice storm, he was in Haiti, teaching handlers there to work with a dog he trained.

LaFollette, who grew up in Strafford, uses his own two dogs to do drug searches in area schools, he said.

He trains a variety of dogs, and many come from shelters, he said.

“Some of the mixed breeds have been really funny looking dogs, but they worked real well,” LaFollette said.

There currently are about 60 dogs and puppies plus 36 cats and kittens at the Humane Society of the Branson Tri-Lakes Area shelter a mile east of Reeds Spring.

Animals brought to the center are kept in isolation for five days and also receive inoculations, Tillman said.

They are licensed by the USDA to keep a total of 100 animals.

The latest program the shelter started to control pet population is the Spay-Neuter Fund. Supported by fund-raisers and donations, the program provides a $25 voucher to people who receive financial aid to have their pets neutered.

Veterinarians in Branson, Kirbyville, Reeds Spring, Branson West and Crane accept the vouchers, Krause said.

It was in 1978 that a group of neighbors got together to find homes for a growing number of stray animals. After 10 years of fund raising, the shelter opened and was affiliated with the National Humane Society in 1995.

EGLIN AIR FORCE BASE - After almost disappearing from the American scene, the bald eagle’s comeback is complete, thanks in part to the Defense Department.

Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne and other officials made the announcement on Thursday at a ceremonial event held at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington.

“Today, I am proud to announce the eagle has returned,” Kempthorne said. “Based on its dramatic recovery, it is my honor to announce the Department of the Interior’s decision to remove the American bald eagle from the endangered species list.”

Although Eglin’s bald eagle monitoring program isn’t as extensive as other base’s including the Army’s Fort Riley in Kansas and bases in San Diego, Eglin’s wildlife managers have taken measures to protect the species here.

Since 1993, Eglin wildlife managers have monitored three bald eagle nests which have produced 20 fledging occurrences on Air Force property here in Florida. They post signs near the shoreline areas where bald eagle nests are found to ensure military personnel are aware of the bird’s existence when conducting mission activity.

As a result of this effort, there have not been any negative impacts to the bald eagle, its habitat or to the military mission here. Eglin has enjoyed a joint effort between its wildlife managers, volunteers and state universities such as University of Florida graduate students who have assisted in research projects to learn more about the species. The Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission have assisted in Eglin’s monitoring efforts by using fixed-wing aircraft to check nests for eggs/young. Eglin maintains and protects approximately 1,000 acres of undeveloped shoreline property where young eagles have fledged.

“We appreciate the contributions all of our partners have made with the eagle and the various other natural resources programs we have,” Steve Seiber, Eglin’s natural resources section chief, said. “This type of success is a true testament to how important our leadership feels about the conservation of our natural resources.”

Eglin wildlife managers are no strangers to managing endangered or threatened species. Eglin has 723 square miles of long-life pine forest that is the home to 11 federally-protected species of wildlife, including the Red-Cockaded woodpecker, the Flatwoods salamander and the Okaloosa darter.

The darter, which more than 90 percent of its habitat in the entire world is found on Eglin, is currently undergoing a status review by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Eglin wildlife managers anticipate that the fish will be downlisted from endangered to threatened within a year, making it only the third fish to be downlisted in the U.S.

UK — A cat shelter has highlighted the importance of getting pets microchipped, after a tabby was reunited with its owner after 10 years.

Staff at Burford’s Blue Cross animal sanctuary reunited Lynx with her owners after the cat spent a decade on the run.

But no-one will ever know how the 12-year-old female tabby ended up in Carterton - more than 60 miles from home.

Not that that bothers relieved owner Patricia Charnet, who had all but given up hope of ever seeing her beloved moggy again.

“It is unbelievable. It is a wonderful feeling,” she said. “If only she could talk, she would have a story to tell.”

Lynx was just two years old when she went missing from the family home in Hook, Hampshire, in 1997.

According to Blue Cross spokesman Mandy Jones, Lynx was brought in to their Shilton Road centre after she had been seen wandering around farmland near Carterton. “Someone who saw her became concerned and, after capturing the animal, brought it to us,” she said.

“She was in good condition and we went through our normal check to see if she was microchipped. Fortunately she was, but it took some detective work to trace the owner.

“I still can’t believe we were able to reunite her with her owner after such a long time. It goes to show how important microchipping is.”

Microchips are implanted beneath an animal’s skin and carry a barcode which can be easily scanned. The number that comes up can be easily checked with Petlog, a national catalogue, but in Lynx’s case, her owner’s telephone number had changed. When they finally tracked down Ms Charnet, they were amazed to discover the cat had been missing for 10 years.

Blue Cross staff named her Bagpuss, but Lynx now has her old name back, as well as her doting owner - and a companion cat which the family had bought to replace her.