WARSAW (AP) — A frightened, shivering dog was rescued after floating 75 miles on an ice floe down Poland's Vistula River and into the Baltic Sea, officials said Thursday.
Now his saviors just have to figure out who really owns him.
Four people have already claimed him, but so far rescuers say there's been no wagging tail of joy from the miracle dog they nicknamed "Baltic."
The dog's frozen odyssey came as Poland suffers through a winter cold snap.Temperatures have dipped to below minus 4 degrees Fahrenheit.
The thick-furred male dog was found adrift Monday 15 miles out in the Baltic Sea by the crew of the Baltica, a Polish ship of ocean scientists carrying out research.
Researcher Natalia Drgas said Thursday that the rescue was difficult and at one point it seemed the dog had drowned.
"It was really a tough struggle. It kept slipping into the water and crawling back on top of the ice. At one point it vanished underwater, under the ship and we thought it was the end, but it emerged again and crawled on an ice sheet," Drgas said.
At that point, the crew lowered a pontoon down to the water and a crewmember managed to grab the dog by the scruff of his neck and pull him to safety.
Too weak to shake off the frigid water, Baltic was dried and wrapped in blankets. After he warmed up, he was massaged, fed and soon got on his feet to seek company, Drgas said.
A firefighter in Grudziadz, on the Vistula river 60 miles inland from the Bay of Gdansk, told the Associated Press the dog was spotted Saturday floating on ice through the city. Firefighters tried to save him but could not approach the dog due to shifting ice sheets, said the officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The Baltica crew, now moored in the port city of Gdynia, has been searching for the dog's owners, ship captain Jerzy Wosachlo said. So far four people have claimed him, but Baltic has not claimed any of them back, Drgas said.
The dog didn't welcome the first two people to come for him, keeping his distance and showing no recognition toward a couple on Wednesday and a woman on Thursday who both said he was theirs. Two other would-be owners were still en route to Gdynia for a possible reunion.
Once in port, the brown-and-black mongrel was taken to a veterinarian, who found him in surprisingly good condition and estimated his age at around 5 or 6 years old. Veterinarian Aleksandra Lawniczak said the 44-pound dog was clearly frightened but in strikingly good shape and had suffered no frostbite.
A dog with thick fur and a layer of fat can survive such cold conditions for as long as eight days if it has water to drink, Lawniczak said.
She described Baltic as a friendly dog who was clearly well treated before getting lost.
Wosachlo said the research team is prepared to adopt Baltic if his original owner is never found.
USA Today
Saturday, January 30, 2010
Rattling dog had eaten 13 golf balls
A dog had 13 golf balls removed from his stomach after his owner noticed his stomach was rattling.
Chris Morrison noticed an unusual sound from the stomach of his black labrador, Oscar, who he regularly walks on a golf course near his home in Dunfermline.
When he took the five-year-old to a vet, he was stunned to find 13 balls were lodged in the dog's stomach, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Morrison, a planning administrator, said one of the balls had been in her stomach so long that it had turned black and was decomposing.
He said: "He finds golf balls like truffles. We're not sure how long exactly this happened over - but it must have been a fair period, several months at least.
"I felt his stomach and heard them rattling around. He normally brings a few home, but I had no idea he had eaten so many.
"It is normally around the ninth and twelfth fairways that we go around - and he just goes and searches for them wherever the golfers lose them."
The balls were removed two weeks ago in an hour-long operation conducted by Bob Hesketh, 40, a vet from Rosyth.
He said: "It was like a magic trick. I opened him up and felt what I thought was two or three golf balls. But they just kept coming until we had a bag full."
Oscar is now on the road to making a full recovery after a special post-operation diet of watered down food, but he now has to wear a muzzle during his walks.
Ananova
Chris Morrison noticed an unusual sound from the stomach of his black labrador, Oscar, who he regularly walks on a golf course near his home in Dunfermline.
When he took the five-year-old to a vet, he was stunned to find 13 balls were lodged in the dog's stomach, reports the Daily Telegraph.
Mr Morrison, a planning administrator, said one of the balls had been in her stomach so long that it had turned black and was decomposing.
He said: "He finds golf balls like truffles. We're not sure how long exactly this happened over - but it must have been a fair period, several months at least.
"I felt his stomach and heard them rattling around. He normally brings a few home, but I had no idea he had eaten so many.
"It is normally around the ninth and twelfth fairways that we go around - and he just goes and searches for them wherever the golfers lose them."
The balls were removed two weeks ago in an hour-long operation conducted by Bob Hesketh, 40, a vet from Rosyth.
He said: "It was like a magic trick. I opened him up and felt what I thought was two or three golf balls. But they just kept coming until we had a bag full."
Oscar is now on the road to making a full recovery after a special post-operation diet of watered down food, but he now has to wear a muzzle during his walks.
Ananova
Dog washed out to sea has lucky escape
WARSAW (Reuters) – A dog had a lucky escape when a Polish boat rescued him from an ice floe that had carried him more than 100 miles up a river and out onto the icy waters of the Baltic Sea.
"My crew saw... a shape moving on the water and we immediately decided to get closer to check if it was a dog or maybe a seal relaxing on the ice," Jan Joachim, senior officer aboard the Baltica, told Reuters Television.
"As we got closer to the ice floe we saw that it was a dog struggling not to fall into the water."
Ship engineer Adam Buczynski managed to scoop the dog off the floe onto an inflatable dinghy and wrapped him in a blanket.
"He didn't even squeal. There was just fear in his big eyes," said Buczynski.
The dog was first seen on the ice floe some 100 km (70 miles) inland to the south on the Vistula river but firemen were unable to rescue him. When the Baltica crew found him, he had already drifted some 24 km (18 miles) out to sea.
"We were in the right place at the right time," said Joachim, noting that they rescued him shortly before night fall.
The crew are now trying to locate the dog's owner.
Poland is in the grip of bitterly cold weather, with night temperatures in some areas falling as low as -34 Celsius (-31 Fahrenheit).
Reuters
"My crew saw... a shape moving on the water and we immediately decided to get closer to check if it was a dog or maybe a seal relaxing on the ice," Jan Joachim, senior officer aboard the Baltica, told Reuters Television.
"As we got closer to the ice floe we saw that it was a dog struggling not to fall into the water."
Ship engineer Adam Buczynski managed to scoop the dog off the floe onto an inflatable dinghy and wrapped him in a blanket.
"He didn't even squeal. There was just fear in his big eyes," said Buczynski.
The dog was first seen on the ice floe some 100 km (70 miles) inland to the south on the Vistula river but firemen were unable to rescue him. When the Baltica crew found him, he had already drifted some 24 km (18 miles) out to sea.
"We were in the right place at the right time," said Joachim, noting that they rescued him shortly before night fall.
The crew are now trying to locate the dog's owner.
Poland is in the grip of bitterly cold weather, with night temperatures in some areas falling as low as -34 Celsius (-31 Fahrenheit).
Reuters
Woman wants surgery to look like Alba
A Chinese woman has revealed plans to undergo plastic surgery to make her look like actress Jessica Alba.The 21-year-old, who has only been identified as Xiaoqing, reportedly plans the cosmetic overhaul in order to win back her ex-boyfriend.
Xiaoqing told the Shanghai Daily: "I have made my decision. I'm not only doing it for my ex-boyfriend, but for myself. I am a psychologically weak person. I want to do something to challenge myself and build a strong personality through it."
The girl has claimed that her 28-year-old ex-boyfriend forced her to do her make-up in the same style as Alba and made her wear a blonde wig.
Xiaoqing added: "I love him very much.... that's why I always followed his opinions. I don't want to lose him."
DS
Criminals in Haiti 'Raping Quake Survivors'
PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — Bandits in Haiti are preying on vulnerable earthquake survivors, even raping women, in makeshift camps which were set up in the capital of Port-au-Prince after the disaster.
"With the blackout that's befallen the Haitian capital, bandits are taking advantage to harass and rape women and young girls under the tents," Haiti’s national police chief Mario Andresol said yesterday.
"We have more than 7,000 detainees in the streets who escaped from the National Penitentiary the evening of the earthquake... It took us five years to apprehend them. Today they are running wild."
Rachelle Dolce, who is living at a large makeshift camp on the Petionville Club Golf Course, said she thought a rape had occurred outside her tent the previous night. She said she heard men making noise and a woman struggling.
"I heard a fight outside, and I saw panties on the ground," she said. "I started to shout a lot, and they left."
Figures for the number of crimes were not available but women's organizations have already detailed a number of cases and alerted the United Nations mission in Haiti, Andresol said.
Fox News
"With the blackout that's befallen the Haitian capital, bandits are taking advantage to harass and rape women and young girls under the tents," Haiti’s national police chief Mario Andresol said yesterday.
"We have more than 7,000 detainees in the streets who escaped from the National Penitentiary the evening of the earthquake... It took us five years to apprehend them. Today they are running wild."
Rachelle Dolce, who is living at a large makeshift camp on the Petionville Club Golf Course, said she thought a rape had occurred outside her tent the previous night. She said she heard men making noise and a woman struggling.
"I heard a fight outside, and I saw panties on the ground," she said. "I started to shout a lot, and they left."
Figures for the number of crimes were not available but women's organizations have already detailed a number of cases and alerted the United Nations mission in Haiti, Andresol said.
Fox News
Doctors amputate wrong foot of man
LIMA, Peru (AP) — Doctors in Peru mistakenly amputated the wrong foot of an 86-year-old man, then had no choice but to cut off the other one as well to keep an infection from spreading, relatives and officials said Monday.
"It was a terrible shock when I lifted up the sheets and saw they had amputated his left foot," the patient's daughter, Carmen Villanueva, told RPP radio.
She said doctors in the port city of Callao had been attending to an ulcer on Jorge Villanueva's right foot since Jan. 4.
When the infection worsened on Saturday, they ordered the ill-fated emergency surgery. Realizing their mistake, doctors performed a second operation the following day that left Villanueva footless.
The Sabogal Hospital said in a statement that it suspended the doctors involved while it investigates.
Health Minister Oscar Ugarte confirmed the mistaken amputation, saying: "Without a doubt this should be punishable. ... It is a sad situation, and we have asked for an investigation."
Carmen Villanueva said her family plans to sue.
USA Today
"It was a terrible shock when I lifted up the sheets and saw they had amputated his left foot," the patient's daughter, Carmen Villanueva, told RPP radio.
She said doctors in the port city of Callao had been attending to an ulcer on Jorge Villanueva's right foot since Jan. 4.
When the infection worsened on Saturday, they ordered the ill-fated emergency surgery. Realizing their mistake, doctors performed a second operation the following day that left Villanueva footless.
The Sabogal Hospital said in a statement that it suspended the doctors involved while it investigates.
Health Minister Oscar Ugarte confirmed the mistaken amputation, saying: "Without a doubt this should be punishable. ... It is a sad situation, and we have asked for an investigation."
Carmen Villanueva said her family plans to sue.
USA Today
'Dead' beekeeper 'comes back to life'
A Polish beekeeper who was declared dead and put in a coffin after a suspected heart attack was later found to be alive.
Jozef Guzy, 76, collapsed as he started work in Katowice and an undertaker took away his body after a doctor pronounced him dead, the Daily Mail reports.
A spokesman for the Regional Ambulance Service in Katowice said: "The patient was not breathing, there was no heart beat, the body had cooled - all are the characteristics of death."
Funeral director Dariusz Wysłuchato was about to seal the lid of the coffin when Jozef's wife Ludmilla asked him to remove her 'late' husband's wristwatch.
Wysłuchato said: "I touched around the neck artery and suddenly realised he wasn't dead after all. I checked again and shouted, 'It's a pulse!'.
"I had a friend check and he noticed the man was breathing. God, it was a miracle! Thank God I did not close the coffin - if I had done that it would have been a tragedy. Something touched me to touch his neck - I'm so pleased he's alive."
The same doctor who pronounced Jozef dead returned with the ambulance and confirmed that he had "come back from the dead".
Jozef said: "The undertaker saved my life. The first thing I did when I got out of hospital was take him a pot of honey."
DS
Jozef Guzy, 76, collapsed as he started work in Katowice and an undertaker took away his body after a doctor pronounced him dead, the Daily Mail reports.
A spokesman for the Regional Ambulance Service in Katowice said: "The patient was not breathing, there was no heart beat, the body had cooled - all are the characteristics of death."
Funeral director Dariusz Wysłuchato was about to seal the lid of the coffin when Jozef's wife Ludmilla asked him to remove her 'late' husband's wristwatch.
Wysłuchato said: "I touched around the neck artery and suddenly realised he wasn't dead after all. I checked again and shouted, 'It's a pulse!'.
"I had a friend check and he noticed the man was breathing. God, it was a miracle! Thank God I did not close the coffin - if I had done that it would have been a tragedy. Something touched me to touch his neck - I'm so pleased he's alive."
The same doctor who pronounced Jozef dead returned with the ambulance and confirmed that he had "come back from the dead".
Jozef said: "The undertaker saved my life. The first thing I did when I got out of hospital was take him a pot of honey."
DS
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