An Australian Boxer named Max has good reason to thank his lucky stars this week after surviving an injury that would normally be considered fatal. Tim Horvat was putting the finishing touches on a deck project when Max ran a little too close to the end of his nail gun, intercepting a nail intended for a very different target. Horvat initially thought the gun had missed Max, but ended up rushing the dog to the Melbourne Veterinary Specialist Centre after noticing a nail head protruding from his skull.

Max is recovering nicely after vets performed a craniectomy to remove the nail from his brain, and the Horvat’s are now in possession of a remarkable souvenir pic:

An adorable, environmentally conscious dog sorts paper from plastic, rides mass transit, and swaps carrots for cows in honor of Earth Day. Read more

A tax attorney from Austin has entered her Dog Woodrow in the Texas Governor’s race. Lorri Michel said her frustration with politics and a desire to raise funds and awareness for animal rescue led to the decision let Woodrow try his paw at politics. His campaign slogan: How ruff could it be?

Walter is one tough, sweet pup. Join his fan club here if you’d like to show support.

It’s time to revisit Buddy and his owner in what may be the biggest dog hero story of the year.

SAN ANGELO, Texas – Jessica Cochran got the news of a lifetime when a certified letter arrived at her home two weeks ago. Her beloved Pembroke Welsh Corgi had been found after going missing for three and a half years.

Roby disappeared from Cochran’s front yard on a November evening in San Angelo Texas (there was no dog containment system), where she was stationed at Goodfellow Air Force Base. Cochran had returned to her front yard after letting Roby out for a routine bathroom break to find the dog missing and a dark pickup truck driving away into the darkness. She spent the next year trying to locate her best friend before being transferred out of state. She left Texas expecting that she would never see him again.

So when a letter arrived from the San Angelo animal shelter explaining that a stranger had dropped Roby off nearly four years later, she did what most any dog lover would do – and drove a thousand miles to retrieve her lost pal. A microchip implanted between Roby’s shoulder blades is credited with reuniting the pair. Their reunion was captured in the following video. *if video will not play click here

Deeply affecting. One of the more powerful videos I’ve seen in the past few weeks. 

Cape May animal control officers got a big surprise when they were asked to retrieve the body of a dog that had been hit by a car in Estell Manor and left on the side of the road for three days. Rudy, a tough little pooch from Wildwood, NJ was not quite ready to give up the fight despite multiple life threatening injuries. His owner, Caroline Ranoia, expressed relief in an interview with a local NBC reporter.

I was slack-jawed as I watched this video of Buddy, a German Shepherd as he led an Alaska State Trooper through winding back roads to a fire at his residence. Best friend indeed.

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