Chasing squirrels is suspected...

[kpete]

"I was beside myself," Cynthia Weeks said of discovering her family was missing a member. "We went around calling for him, and I drove around. I put it on my Facebook pages, and we put fliers out around the neighborhood."


Laddy, a 7-year-old border collie, probably was chasing a squirrel when he ended up stuck in a tree for several days.


Two days later, early Sunday morning, Ron Stevenson was working in his yard a couple of blocks away when he heard something that had been bugging him.

"I'd been hearing this dog barking, but I didn't want to be a complaining neighbor and, besides, my wife and I are dog lovers," he said Monday. "When I was outside early Sunday, I heard a whining, and I knew something wasn't right. This time, it sounded in distress."

When following the sound of a dog, Stevenson noted, it is counter-intuitive to look up. But there was Laddy — at least 10 feet up a tree near his driveway.

http://qctimes.com/news/local/barking-up-the-right-tree/article_d02cf5b6-d4b4-5462-b9e7-c581438de50f.html

[hedgehog]

1. Thank you for the smile!

[etherealtruth]

2. Any thread titled "Chasing squirrels is suspected..."

... is going to get a rec from me!

[justiceischeap]

3. Thank goodness no one decided to shoot the dog out of the tree. nt

[Jackpine Radical]

4. That's only because nobody called the cops.

Woooh--Dog in a tree--BangBangBang!

[Brigid]

9. Makes me think of Tackleberry:

Old lady: Officer, officer! Could you please get my kitty cat out of the tree?

Tackleberry : No problem ma'am. *Pulls out gun*

Old lady: No! No!

Can you believe I couldn't find that on YouTube?

[Spitfire of ATJ]

12. Speaking of, Bobcat Goldthwait would be great cast as a Tea Party guy.

[bemildred]

5. Border Collies are not for people who don't want to get too involved with the dog. nt

[IDemo]

15. Or who are afraid their dog may have a larger vocabulary than they do

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/01/11/dog-breaks-vocabulary-rec_n_804728.html?c

[mysuzuki2]

6. That could have easily been my golden retriever Dexie.

He has tried to climb trees after squirrels many times.

[pepperbear]

7. I keep picturing squirrels laughing at him

"Dude, long way down isn't it?"

[CrispyQ]

8. That is one silly looking pup-dog!

Thanks for sharing!

[jtuck004]

10. Being a border collie, I suspect he is thinking

"Well, I could've gone higher if the tree would have co-operated"

Thank you for posting that.

[Hekate]

11. That's my laugh for the day

Your title is much better than the original!

[tblue37]

13. Let me share two funny dog stories.

First, here's a story about the time my Afghan Hound Jason got stuck up in a tree:

"Um--Could You Please Help Me get My Dog Out of That Tree?

http://pettales.homestead.com/dogtree.html

Second story: my daughter's rescue dog Phouka is mostly Border Collie, though she looks like a black Lab.

Whenever they left the apartment during the first few weeks they had her, they would come home to find that she had rearranged the furniture, shoving everything that she could move into a tight grouping in the middle of the floor. She worked hard, too, because she moved anything that could be moved at all, even if it was difficult to move it--including, for example, the couch.

When I told this to a friend of mine who knows a lot about different dog breeds, I didn't mention her breed, but my friend immediately asked, "Is the dog a herding breed?"

It turns out that this is not an uncommon behavior in such breeds, especially when they are bored or stressed, as this one would have been when left alone after spending most of her first 9 months in a pound before being adopted.

The instinct that makes for good herding dogs is the urge to "contain," to move individual items (or individual livestock animals) into a tight grouping--so Phouka was just obeying her instincts.

After this happened a few times, they began to keep her in a large crate whenever they left, until she learned that she was not being abandoned, but that they would always come back to her. She is very bright, so that didn't take too long for her to learn, fortunately.

But I love the idea of a dog that rearranges the furniture when you leave the house, don't you?

I just love smart animals, especially when they do such odd and unexpected things.

[pinboy3niner]

14. LOL! I could use a dog like Phouka.

It almost certainly would be a better decorator than I am.

[tblue37]

16. I made a mistake, though. She's an Australian Shepherd mix,

not a Border Collie mix--but still, a herding breed with a herder's instincts.

God, I love animals!

BTW, you can find a bunch of funny true animal stories on my Pet Tales website, if you're interested:

http://www.pettales.homestead.com/index.html

[Liberal_in_LA]

17. lol

[Kennah]

18. All of this publicity will only encourage the squirrels