Thursday 19 April 2012

RED DOG
"REAL STORY OF DOG"

Red Dog (1971 – 21 November 1979) was a Kelpie/cattle dog cross who was well known for his travels through Western Australia's Pilbara region. There is a statue in his memory in Dampier, which is one of the towns to which he often returned.
Red Dog is believed to have been born in the town of Paraburdoo, Jamunjat in 1971 and had a variety of names to those who knew him, including: Bluey, Tally Ho, and Dog of the Northwest.
Soon after Red's death in 1979, Australian author Nancy Gillespie wrote and compiled anecdotes and poetry written by several people of the Pilbara region for her book Red Dog as did Beverly Duckett in her 1993 book Red Dog: The Pilbara Wanderer.

Red Dog's story and statue have caught the attention of a number of people passing through Dampier including British author Louis de Bernières, who was inspired to write a book loosely based on Red's legend called Red Dog. A four-wheel-drive club has been named in his honour. 

Movie
Red Dog is a 2011 Australian family film directed by Kriv Stenders and produced by Nelson Woss and Julie Ryan. The film is based on a true story from the novel Red Dog.
Truck driver Thomas arrives in Dampier, Western Australia, late one night. Upon entering the town pub he sees the silhouettes of a group of men, one of whom is holding a gun. Believing he is witnessing a murder he rushes into the next room, where he sees that the men are trying to put down an apparently sick dog. Unable to bring themselves to carry out the euthanasia, the men, with Thomas, retreat to the bar.
Publican Jack Collins tells him the dog's name is Red Dog and narrates his story. Upon arriving in Dampier, the dog befriends many of the employees of Hamersley Iron, who have a major iron ore excavation in progress. Various miners relate their stories of Red Dog to Thomas, but state that, while Red Dog was a dog for everyone, he had no real master.
The men then tell of an American named John Grant, who becomes Red's true master. John, a bus driver for Hamersley Iron, starts dating a woman named Nancy, who is a secretary at Hamersley Iron. After living in Dampier for two years, John proposes to Nancy. On the night of the engagement, John tells Red Dog to stay until he returns from Nancy's caravan. Early the next morning, John rides his motorcycle from Nancy's caravan, but is killed in an accident on the way home.
In the shock of John's accident, Nancy and the Hamersley men forget about Red Dog. Unbeknownst to them, he is still in the place where John told him to stay. After three weeks Red decides to look for John, first at Hamersley Iron, then the bar and other places where John was known to go, until all of Dampier is explored. He then continues across much of the Australian North West Pilbara region from Perth to Darwin. He is even rumoured to have caught a ship to Japan in search of John. Finally, the grief catches up to him, and he decides to return to Dampier. When he arrives, he returns to Nancy at the caravan park where she is staying, and she is overwhelmed to see him. The caretakers of the caravan park, however, do not allow dogs in the park, and threaten to shoot Red Dog. Nancy and John's friends at Hamersley then travel the community of Dampier in support of Red Dog and, after a "civilized chat" with some of the miners, the caretaker and his wife leave, leaving their cat, Red Cat, behind. A great fight between Red Dog and Red Cat ensues, and in the end, they resolve their differences and become mates.
Back in the present day, miner Jocko asks the gathered crowd why they should have a statue of a man set in their town when all he did in relation to the place was say that there were too many flies, and suggests that they should instead erect a statue of someone who represents the town – Red Dog. During the celebrations that follow, Red Dog gets up and walks out of the bar, unnoticed by everyone. Upon realising that the sick dog has left, everyone in the town begins looking for him, eventually finding him lying dead in front of John's grave.
One year later, Thomas once again drives up to Dampier with a new puppy, a new Red Dog and the whole town unveils a statue of Red Dog, a statue which still stands today.
Legacy
Soon after Red's death, Australian author Nancy Gillespie wrote and compiled anecdotes and poetry written by several people of the Pilbara region for her book Red Dog as did Beverly Duckett in her 1993 book Red Dog: the Pilbara Wanderer.
 Red Dog's story and statue have caught the attention of a number of people passing through Dampier including British author Louis de Bernières, who was inspired to write a book loosely based on Red's legend called Red Dog. A Four-wheel drive club has been named in his honor.



Tuesday 17 April 2012


Does Dogs have GPS: 

How Do Lost Dogs Find Their Way Back to Home


You must have heard the stories of dogs, which lost their way and reached to some unknown places and yet amazingly they find their way back to homes, walking for miles, crossing number of unknown streets, landscapes and mountains. From fictional stories like Old Yeller and The Incredible Journey to the real life incidence of people, who would be telling about how they lost their dog some months ago and surprisingly one day they find their dogs on the footsteps of their homes. In some incidence dogs were missing from more than a year and suddenly after a year or more, they come back to their owners. Nobody knows where they had been during these missing months, what they had eaten, how they found their way back.

Such stories often people leave wondering, if their brains are equipped with GPS (Global Positioning System), or it’s because of their strong sniffing ability. Some people are describing it as a emotional attachment or emotional GPS, which helps lost dogs find their home back against all odds, travels long distances to find his way home. On the other hand some people will describe this, dog’s intelligence. But it takes much more than intelligence to wander through unknown streets and prairies in search of a familiar face. It takes great deal of attention and synergy of five senses to make it possible.

If talking about the senses, some researchers are also arguing about the sixth sense present in the pets or animals. Due to their sixth sense they can judge in advance about the abnormal things. Researchers are giving examples of Tsunami in which miraculously very few animals died on the other hand so called intelligent creatures i.e humans died in millions of numbers.

There is no doubt on the dog’s amazing ability of sniffing and identifying the similar scent from the number of different smells. That’s the reason why every nation has sniffing dog brigade in their security forces. Such dogs are capable of detecting scents for great distances and with great accuracy. Not to mention bomb detecting dogs that can detect fragments of explosives among hundreds of other smells.

However, it takes more than a great sense of smell to sniff the way back home. Some studies suggest that dogs have an electromagnetic sense that makes time quite sensitive to minimal vibrations. This sixth sense is something that allows dogs to predict earthquakes and find their way home across several miles.


These amazing abilities may blend in the dogs because of their ancestors like wolves and wild dogs. These wolves and wild dog’s used to travel miles in search of food and water and than finding their way back to their territories.

It becomes possible for dogs because of special navigational maps dogs are capable of creating and the combination of skills and their hereditary gifts. By synchronizing the great sniffing abilities, their ability of good observation of surrounding things, exceptional hearing abilities and possibly, an uncanny ability to perceive magnetic fields and the position of the sun, which some researchers are describing as sixth sense. Combination of these abilities make a great GPS system in dogs brains which help them in finding their way back to home, after travelling miles and spending months away from home.

But again the question arises, if dogs have such exceptional GPS system or combination of senses, then why they lost their way. Why everyday newspapers columns are full of lost dog and missing dogs. This still remain a mystery and there are some things which are above the science. Still more research need to be done on this.



Possibly the best answer would be that some dogs are equipped with some super natural powers or extra sensorial abilities which are above the understanding of humans.  

Saturday 14 April 2012


TITANIC, DOGS & MYSTERY


When the Titanic struck an iceberg on the north Atlantic exactly 100 years ago today, and sank two and a half hours later, she claimed the lives of almost 1500 of the 2,224 people on board. Usually left untold is the fact that the disaster also claimed the lives of 75 percent of the dogs sailing aboard the ship. Twelve are known to have sailed, and only three survived.

To be on the maiden voyage of “the largest moving object in the world” carried huge status so many very rich and famous people were on board.

But there has also been a lot of interest down the years about the animals who were on board for this fateful journey. There were certainly a number of dogs who were the companions of wealthy first class passengers. In fact it is claimed that on the Monday there had been due to be a dog show on board.

Like many stories surrounding the Titanic there are a number of myths, conflicting accounts and perhaps some exaggeration regarding the pets on the Titanic, but as far as can be certain it is believed that there were a number of pet dogs on board, a ship’s cat and possibly a canary.

It cost about half a normal fare to take a dog on board – as it would have done for a child, so it was chiefly only the First Class passengers who could afford to take their pets with them on the Titanic.

Most of the big dogs were housed in the ship’s kennels, while some of the small dogs were kept surreptitiously by first-class passengers in their staterooms. The survivors were among the latter and it is fairly certain that just threedogs survived the disaster:

• a Pekingese named Sun-Yat Sen owned by Henry Sleeper Harper who escaped in boat three;
• a 
Pomeranian called “Lady” owned by Miss Margaret Hays who escaped in boat seven
• a 
Pomeranian owned by Elizabeth Barrett Rothschild. They escaped together in boat six.
These three dogs survived because they were taken on deck by their owners at the first hint of trouble and because they were all small enough lapdogs to be easily carried by their owners. Others were not so fortunate.
As the ship was going down, someone thought (legends says the person was Colonel John Jacob Astor) to open the kennels to give the dogs a fighting chance. Most were last seen running on the rapidly tilting deck. The bodies of some were later recovered from the sea.
Colonel John Jacob Astor and his young wife Madeleine had an Airedale dog on board called Kitty. Colonel Astor and the dog died, but his heavily-pregnant wife and a maid travelling with them survived.
According to "1912 Facts About Titanic" by Lee W. Merideth: "As the boat was rowed away, the passengers could all see John Jacob Astor, the two Thayers, the two Widener men and Arthur Ryerson standing together in a group, waving at the boat, and all deep in their own thoughts. At some point, Colonel Astor went down to F deck aft to where the dog kennels were and let the dogs out. Madeleine Astor would later say that as the ship started to go under, she could see Colonel Astor's Airedale dog "Kitty" running around on the Boat deck."
 There are a number of stories about the dogs who were in kennels being released as the ship went down so they could take a chance at swimming to safety – whether it was Colonel Astor who freed them, before he was killed by a falling funnel on the sinking ship, we can’t be sure.



I’ll share a story that fascinates me, One of the biggest mystery. A Great DaneSaint Bernard or possibly a Newfoundland possibly travelling with a middle aged spinster called Ann Isham. One knowledgeable Titanic pet expert called Marty Crisp (who has written a number of books on the subject) believes that this lady refused to get in the lifeboat without her dog and their bodies may have been sighted a couple of days after the disaster floating together by passengers from a German liner the Bremen. More than one passenger and crew member from other ships passing through this haunted trail of tears, reported seeing a woman, frozen solid, her arms wrapped around a huge black dog.  Remarkable.  To this day when passing through the area where the ship sank, ocean travelers hear the baying and strong, deep throated barking of what seems to be a large dog.  Explorers that brave the deep Atlantic to study Titanic have sometimes reported what seems to be the black figure of a large dog gamboling on the deck as the submergible approaches the rotting hulk of Titanic’s bow.  Of course that would be impossible, but not for a spirit dog. Others say there is no evidence that Miss Isham had a dog with her.Many other historians also dispute that it was Isham with the dog, although history does record passengers of the German liner Breman telling reporters once they arrived in New York several days after the Titanic sank they had seen a “fully clothed body of a woman clinging tightly to that of a shaggy dog.”  


One story that is often recounted, but sadly is purely a myth, is that a Newfoundland dog called Rigel – allegedly the pet of First Officer William Murdoch – survived in the water and alerted rescuers to a lifeboat of survivors.
It is claimed that his barks alerted the crew of rescue ship the Carpathia to a boat of exhausted survivors too weak to shout who were perilously close to being sunk by the Carpathia.

The story goes that Rigel was pulled to safety too and adopted by a crewman on the Carpathia.
Sadly, records show that no such dog existed on the Titanic, either as a pet of First Officer Murdoch or anyone else.
Rest In Peace furry friends . . . and of course to all of Titanic’s human victims too.

Tuesday 10 April 2012

Quotations on Dog's

DOG QUOTATIONS



“Dogs never bite me. Just humans.” 
 Marilyn Monroe

 “If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and man.” 
 Mark Twain

“If you don't own a dog, at least one, there is not necessarily anything wrong with you, but there may be something wrong with your life.”  Roger Caras 

 “The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him, and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too.” 
 Samuel Butler

“Dogs are our link to paradise. They don't know evil or jealousy or discontent. To sit with a dog on a hillside on a glorious afternoon is to be back in Eden, where doing nothing was not boring--it was peace.” 
 Milan Kundera

“Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.” 
 Mark Twain

 “Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.” 
 Roger Caras

 "A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog, when you are just as hungry as the dog.” 
 Jack London  

  “A dog is the only thing on earth that loves you more than he loves himself.” 
 Josh Billings

“If there are no dogs in Heaven, then when I die I want to go where they went.” 
 Will Rogers 

“You think those dogs will not be in heaven! I tell you they will be there long before any of us.” 
  Robert Louis Stevenson

“Petting, scratching, and cuddling a dog could be as soothing to the mind and heart as deep meditation and almost as good for the soul as prayer.” 
 Dean Koontz, False Memory

“The dog is a gentleman; I hope to go to his heaven not man's.” 
 Mark Twain

“The more boys I meet the more I love my dog.” 
 Carrie Underwood

“Dogs have given us their absolute all. We are the center of their universe. We are the focus of their love and faith and trust. They serve us in return for scraps. It is without a doubt the best deal man has ever made. ” 
 Roger Caras

“The better I get to know men, the more I find myself loving dogs.” 
 Charles de Gaulle

“Dogs feel very strongly that they should always go with you in the car, in case the need should arise for them to bark violently at nothing right in your ear.” 
 Dave Barry
  
“The average dog is a nicer person than the average person.” 
 Andy Rooney 

“. . . owning a dog always ended with this sadness because dogs just don't live as long as people do.”  John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

“To his dog, every man is Napoleon; hence the constant popularity of dogs.” 
 Aldous Huxley

“It's just the most amazing thing to love a dog, isn't it? It makes our relationships with people seem as boring as a bowl of oatmeal.”  John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog

 “You can say any fool thing to a dog and the dog will just give you this look that says, 'My GOSH, you're RIGHT! I NEVER would've thought of that!” 
 Dave Barry

“Such short little lives our pets have to spend with us, and they spend most of it waiting for us to come home each day. 
It is amazing how much love and laughter they bring into our lives and even how much closer we become with each other because of them.”
 
 John Grogan, Marley & Me: Life and Love with the World's Worst Dog   

 “After years of having a dog, you know him. You know the meaning of his snuffs and grunts and barks. Every twitch of the ears is a question or statement, every wag of the tail is an exclamation.” 
 Robert R. McCammon, Boy's Life  

 “Owners of dogs will have noticed that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they will think you are god. Whereas owners of cats are compelled to realize that, if you provide them with food and water and shelter and affection, they draw the conclusion thatthey are gods.” 
 Christopher Hitchens, The Portable Atheist: Essential Readings for the Nonbeliever

“Happiness is a warm puppy.” 
 Charles M. Schulz  

 “Whoever said you can't buy Happiness forgot little puppies.” ~ Anonymous

"The greatest pleasure of a dog is that you may make a fool of yourself with him and not only will he not scold you, but he will make a fool of himself, too." ~ Samuel Butler

"A Dog's eyes have the power to speak a great language." ~ Martin Buber

"We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals." ~ Immanual Kant

"My little dog -- a heartbeat at my feet." ~ Edith Wharton

"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole." ~ Roger Caras

 "You think dogs will not be in heaven? I tell you, they will be there long before any of us" ~ Robert Louis Stevenson

"A dog is the only thing on earth that will love you more than you love yourself." ~ Josh Billings

 "Until one has loved a Dog, a part of one's soul remains unawakened." ~ Anatole France

"Don't accept your dog's admiration as conclusive evidence that you are wonderful." ~ Ann Landers

"A house is not a home without a pet." ~ Anonymous

"Old age means realizing you will never own all the dogs you wanted to." ~ Joe Gores

"If having a soul means being able to feel love and loyalty and gratitude, then Dogs are better off than a lot of humans" ~ James Herriot

"I think I could turn and live with animals, they are
so placid and self-contained,
I stand and look at them long and long." ~ Walt Whitman

"There is no psychiatrist in the world like a puppy licking your face." ~ Ben Williams

"No heaven will not ever Heaven be;
Unless my Dogs are there to welcome me." ~ Anonymous

"Did you ever walk into a room and forget why you walked in?
I think that is how dogs spend their lives." ~ Sue Murphy

 "All of the animals except for man know that the principle business of life is to enjoy it." ~ Samuel Butler

 "You can say any foolish thing to a dog, and the dog will give you a look that says, 'My God, you're right! I never would've thought of that!'" ~ Dave Barry

"The dog was created especially for children. He is the God of frolic." ~ Henry Ward Beecher 

"If I have any beliefs about immortality it is that certain dogs I know will go to heaven, and very very few people." ~ James Thurber

"Every boy should have two things: a dog, and a mother willing to let him have one" ~ Anonymous 
  
 "A dog has lots of friends because he wags his tail and not his tongue." ~ Anonymous

"The dog represents all that is best in man." ~ Etienne Charlet

 "The average dog is a nicer person than the average person." ~ Andrew A. Rooney

"Dogs come when they're called; cats take a message and get back to you later." ~ Mary Bly

"Animals are such agreeable friends - they ask no questions, they pass no criticisms." ~ George Elliot 

"I care not for a man's religion whose dog and cat are not the better for it." ~ Abraham Lincoln

 "If a dog jumps in your lap, it is because he is fond of you; but if a cat does the same thing, it is because you lap is warmer." ~ Alfred North Whitehead
  
 "When I play with my Dog who knows whether he is not amusing himself with me more than I with her." ~ Montaigne
 "The purity of a person's heart can be quickly measured by how they regard animals" ~ Anonymous

"I love dogs. They live in the moment and don't care about anything except affection and food. They're loyal and happy. Humans are just too damn complicated" - David Duchovny

 He is your friend, your partner, your defender, your dog. You are his life, his love, his leader. He will be yours, faithful and true, to the last beat of his heart. You owe it to him to be worthy of such devotion.Snoop

"My goal in life is to become as wonderful as my dog thinks I am~Anonymous
"Dogs are not our whole life, but they make our lives whole.Roger Caras 
No matter how little money and how few possessions you own, having a dog makes you rich- Gerry Sodha
 If your dog doesn't like someone, you probably shouldn't either" ~ Anonymous

 “Money will buy you a fine dog, but only love can make it wag its tail" - Gerry Sodha