Weasel, a ten week old puppy, is unusual in that he was born with no ears! He has undergone a series of veterinary checks since arriving at the Dogs Trust and vets believe that, despite having no outer ears, he is able to hear some muffled sounds.

Weasel will be sent to a specialist veterinary practice in Southampton, later in the month, to determine whether or not vets can create ears for him. Let’s hope they can and Weasel can enjoy the rest of his life barking at every noise in the neighbourhood.

His owner, veterinary nurse Kate Sheppard from Birmingham, spotted him lapping the poisonous liquid in the back of her dad’s car. She told the Daily Record:

“There are specific antidotes for all sorts of household fluids cats and dogs might accidentally drink.

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"We were told to use ethanol but we couldn't find it anywhere. It was a frantic race against time."

A quick-thinking vet suggested vodka as an alternative. Mixed with saline solution and vitamins, the vodka was adminstered using a drip, with Kate by Teddy's side over night.

"The morning after he was a little bit dopey the poor thing had quite a hangover. He was down in the dumps with big bags under his eyes for a few days," Kate added.

Kate and Teddy then faced a tense wait to see exactly what damage the anti-freeze had done. If the vodka hadn't neutralised the anti-freeze in time, it could have destroyed Teddy's kidneys.

Thankfully, an x-ray showed that the vodka had worked and that there was no permanent damage.

]]> http://www.dogsrule.co.uk/blog/crazy-stories/vodka-saves-alsatian-dog/feed/ 1 http://www.dogsrule.co.uk/blog/crazy-stories/jack-russell-found-in-cars-engine/ http://www.dogsrule.co.uk/blog/crazy-stories/jack-russell-found-in-cars-engine/#comments Wed, 12 Apr 2006 21:24:58 +0000 Matthew Revell http://www.dogsrule.co.uk/blog/crazy-stories/jack-russell-found-in-cars-engine/ Duke, a twelve month old Jack Russell who went missing a week ago, has turned up under the bonnet of his owner’s car.

Tom and Doris Whitney, of Kidderminster, heard Duke’s barking after he’d disappeared but never managed to trace him to the garage. Doris told the Express and Star newspaper:

“We kept hearing him bark, and a neighbour said they heard barking, but whenever we got near the garage he must have stopped, and we just could not make out where he might be.”

Astonishingly, the little mutt was unharmed, although no doubt starving and dehydrated. In his battle to get out of the engine, he chewed through a clutch cable, which is the only reason he was eventually found:

“I went into the garage to start the car and put my foot on the clutch to reverse out but found something was wrong.

“I went back inside the bungalow to call my son Barry, who said he could not do anything until he finished work. So I went back to push the car back a bit so that I could open the bonnet, and as I did so I found Duke in this tiny space. It turns out that while Duke was inside the vehicle, he had chewed through the clutch cable, and this was the reason I could not move the car”, Tom told the newspaper.

How he got under the bonnet hasn’t been reported.

However, recycling the city’s 6,500 tonnes of animal excrement each year has proven somewhat difficult, until now. Rubbish company, Norcal Waste, has opened a new facility that will turn dog poo into natural gas.

Norcal plans to feed its $1 million methane digster with waste from one of San Francisco’s dog parks. Over a period of weeks, the feces will be broken down by bacteria, resulting in methane gas. The gas can then be used for heating, electricity generation and, perhaps less acceptably, cooking.

With underground gas reserves quickly running out, it’s about time all animal waste was turned into useful energy.

More in the Mercury News.

Ian Jopling, spokesperson for the council, explained to the BBC:

We have to do extra runs to take the waste away, and it’s costing us time and resources.

The council’s complaint seems to arise from their belief that local householders are using the bins to dispose of dog mess from their own gardens etc, rather than anything done on a walk near the bin.

It seems odd to think that people are walking to the bins from their houses, with bags of dog poo. No, really. Would you walk from your house to a local dog poo bin with a bag full of dog mess?

Using the kind of Herculean leap of logic reserved only for local government, Horsham District Council has threatened to errect mobile CCTV to catch anyone over-using the bins. I wonder if anyone considered using that money to increase the number of collections.