Photo of Dog's Last Meal Brings Reddit Community to Tears

Lennox the Boxer may have lost the battle with cancer, but he got the dish of his dreams before heading to the Rainbow Bridge.

When you have to euthanize your beloved dog, you want all the snuggles and playtime you can get. But you have to think, what does the dog want? One man who had a cancer-ridden Boxer named Lennox knew exactly what his dog wanted: a turkey leg covered in bacon, laid on a pillow of rice next to two fat sausages and (from the looks of it) a solid hunk of bread. 

An epic last meal, in other words. 

Reddit user Nikolaoss posted a photo of the feast to the site yesterday, and it tore up the rankings (along with a few Redditors -- many comments about crying in the comments). Later he posted further explanation. Lennox was his roommate's dog, who had reached the end of his battle with cancer. 

"He has severe cancer and arthritis," he wrote. "After many surgeries, which include a tumor on his left ear which you can see had surgery on. Now there is a huge growth on his left shoulder that you can see in the pic, he can barely walk on that side, and barely gets up anymore." 

Nickolaoss also included a video. Lennox enjoyed his last meal very much, it seems. Watch for yourself: 

Many Redditors expressed sympathy for the dog and shared their own stories. One user, soapage, had this to say:  

"Well Nikolaoss tell your roomate for me this: I know a lot of people here don't believe in heaven, but I think we all believe there is somewhere to go. He shall be put to sleep and his suffering will pass. In an instant his energy will burst out of his body with all the love that has been poured on him for years and it will be free. Most likely he will chase some squirrels and visit the cosmos, but I am pretty sure most of the time he will stick around with his human ... waiting the exact moment to greet him with a nice face lick on the other side."

In another post, Nikolaoss thanked the community for its compassion. "Thanks for all the comments, my roommate appreciates it a lot. This post isn't meant to be sad in any way. He lived like an absolute boss all his life! And the meal reflects that!"

Lennox was put to sleep on Wednesday. Nickolaoss said he passed away peacefully. 

Via the Huffington Post

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Brutus vs. Sock Brutus 1 – Sock 0

Now that I have finally caught my breath and calmed down I can share the “excitement” we had here on Tuesday.

Had a very scary day with Brutus.  The morning started out with him throwing up his breakfast.  Then two more vomiting bouts with the remainder of his breakfast.  Oh joy!  Bloat is of course going through my mind at this point.  Cleaned that up and he started going down hill from there FAST.

He threw up some water and headed outside to vomit again and collapsed in the most horrific fashion.  I will never get that image out of my mind.  I literally thought he had a heart attack and was dead laying there.  I absolutely freaked!!!  Stark raving screaming freak out.  I re-positioned his head and straightened out his legs and then he held his head up.  I helped him stand and he wandered back inside a little dazed, but far from dead.

He climbed under my desk and was very uncomfortable.  He started having some labored breathing. At that point I’m on the phone trying to get help from my husband to get him to the emergency vet.  He starts profusely drooling and I know hes about to get sick again.  We head out on the deck and he pukes up a ton of water AND a SOCK, a freaking SOCK!!!!!!!!!  WTF that dog has never eaten anything other than food before!

Immediately he starts wagging his tail and I just collapse on him bawling.  He came back in made himself comfortable in front of the fan.  He had rice and chicken for dinner and ate with gusto and seemed to be completely back to himself with in 2 hours.  I think I aged 10 years that day.

I was absolutely sick about it.  Thank goodness for happy endings.  Morale of the story… never, ever take it for granted that your dog wont get into something they shouldn’t.  And make sure your teenager picks up their socks!

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Dig This Video: Nathan the Hairless Dog Is a Dancing King

The Chinese Crested rescue dog has a great crew behind him, too. Your move, Kanye.

Have you ever seen a hairless dog flanked by three of his crew getting down to Madonna's "4 Minutes" in a rocking office chair?  

No? What's wrong with you? Have a look: 

Now go watch the video here.

This dog is down with it, no? And his posse -- Crazy Hair on the left, Not Having It over the shoulder, and Eyebrows sort of hunched behind the rocking office chair, the way he does -- that's a fine-looking crew, dead ringers for about 100 people in 1984's Breakin', which is where all the great crews come from.

And Nathan, on the rocking office chair -- do you know that Nathan dances better than 85 percent of people at weddings, 95 percent of people at any given Red Lobster, and 100 percent of Ellen's studio audience? 

We know this because we Nathan and the Furious Three were featured on the show: 

Nathan's video has predictably struck a chord with Internet users -- "Hey, that dog has more game than me!" -- going viral and bringing scads of much-needed attention to the rescue Bald Is Beautiful, out of Greenville, SC, which takes in primarily hairless and small-breed dogs and finds them homes.  

Nathan, who is identified as a Chinese Crested on the Bald Is Beautiful website, was a hard case, the group reports Facebook. After his owner died in 2008, he was left in her home with all of her other dogs for a week. Another rescue took him in but failed to place the dog.   "He was moved to several homes over the next few years," writes BIB, "and apparently no one was willing or able to keep Nathan for more than a year before moving him on."

In 2011, Nathan ended up at Bald Is Beautiful. The group placed him with a foster home, where they discovered his fear of men. 

"Nathan was an unusual case in that he required ongoing training to address his issues. Part of this process includes changing behavior, but also minimizing triggers and helping the dog find success where it is possible."

After another failed placement, his foster mom realized "he was happier at her home than anywhere else he'd been before," so she adopted him. Nathan has been a joy ever since. 

As for his dancing, well, yeah, he's scratching his back. But it's so much more than that. 

"This dancing behavior is something he started on his own and now does on command for lots of praise from his mom, and treats, too," writes BIB.

And that crew? "Well, they know the drill. When Mom says, 'Wiggle it!' they all line up behind the green chair and wait. When it's over, everyone gets treats!" 

Two of Nathan's crew are his brothers, but Not Having It is up for adoption. His real name is Diamond; check out his profile here.

And check him out here with Al Roker:

Photos via Bald Is Beautiful's Facebook

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RAGD interviewed by Toxic Free Talk Radio!

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Indy the Pit Bull -- Hurt by a Sadistic Act Involving Fireworks -- Finds a Happy Ending

A vet tech who helped him recover from injuries sustained on July 4 offers him a new home.

Happy endings sometimes seem in short supply, especially in cases of animal abuse, so this one is very welcome. After months of treatment and recovery, a Pit Bull who made the news last year after someone strapped fireworks to his body and lit them, has found a new forever home.

Indy (short for Independence) was part of a particularly sadistic kind of Fourth of July  celebration last year. He was discovered in an alley in Van Nuys, California, on July 5, 2013, with more than half his body covered with third-degree burns. To this day, no one knows where Indy came from, or who tied fireworks to his body and legs. It's possible that we never will.

But we do know that this week, he went to a new home, adopted by one of the veterinary technicians who looked after him at the Westlake Village Animal Hospital. Jenny Mandel, who officially adopted Indy, wasn't working at the hospital when he first came in, but for months she has made a habit of coming to see him every morning when she came in. In November, she decided to adopt him.

"You can't not love a dog like that, so every day it was just more love, more love, and then finally he became a momma's boy. I became a doggy's girl," she told NBC.

It has been a very long and painful journey for Indy to get to his new home. NBC reports that his treatment involved "at least four skin grafts and surgeries."

The volunteers and staff who have cared for Indy during that time understand that journey better than anyone. Just after his recovery was announced in November, volunteer Allison Polumbus said, "It's really hard to see an animal in this kind of pain. We saw him without the bandages. It's horrific, it's gory, and you can't even imagine the pain he's in."

The scars from Indy's trauma are going to last for a long time, but everyone says that he has remained loving and affectionate the whole time. At his new home, at least he'll be assured of getting some of that love back.

I have to admit to a certain sentimental attachment to this story. I grew up in Westlake Village, where Indy has been recovering. It's an affluent suburb about 40 miles north of Los Angeles. I went to two high schools in the area and hated almost every minute I lived there. I was glad when I finally escaped to go to college in the 1990s, because I knew from an early age that I wouldn't get any happy endings there. I'm glad that I got out when I did, but I'm also glad that Indy, at least, found his happy ending in Westlake.

Via Life With Dogs and NBC

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P.L.A.Y joins the Raise A Green Dog Partner Pack!

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Dempsey the Boxer Survives Nine Freezing Days Outside in Maine Only to Be Hit by a Car

He went 10 rounds in subzero woods and then got knocked flat by a car, but this fighter survived.

Dempsey the Boxer was named after the boxer Jack Dempsey, so you have to assume that this little guy is not going to go down without a fight. 

And last week, he was in the fight of his life: nine days alone in subzero temperatures, and then he gets hit by a car.  

It started a couple of weeks ago, when Dempsey and his owner Jamie Cyrway visited her parents' house in Maine -- a very cold Maine. Dempsey, for reasons known only to Dempsey, jumped a six-foot fence in the backyard and aced into the woods. Those woods were freezing. Dempsey was an out-of-town Boxer, unused to such conditions. It didn't look good. The family immediately started searching, offering a reward, putting up signs around the neighborhood and on Facebook.

“We went out on snow shoes,” Janet Boothby, Cyrway’s mother, told CBS News. “We went out at night. We took my dog on trails. Jamie and I went through the woods. We had scent stations set up.”

They did everything they could, in short. But still no Dempsey. Eventually, Cyrway, who is a single parent with three kids, had to get back to Maryland for work. She left with her kids, but her family continued the search. 

The days continued to pass, but they didn't give up hope. 

"Jamie and I never gave up on him," Boothby told WMTM.com. "We said, 'Until we have proof Dempsey is gone by being dead or something, we’re not going to give up. Because if we give up, he will die and we weren’t going to do that."

Then, nine days later, a break in the case. A man told others he hit a dog near a farm in the area where Dempsey vanished. Christine Pierce, who heard about Dempsey on Facebook but didn't know the dog, thought she'd go check it out. 

She found tracks in the snow, which led into a shed. She followed them and found Dempsey, who looked "horrible" and "skinny." 

“He wasn’t moving, and when I saw him, I said, 'Dempsey, I found you. I can’t believe I found you,'" Pierce said. “He kind of opened his eyes a little bit and then I knew he was alive. I scooped him up and put him in the back of my vehicle and called his owner Jamie and said, 'I found your dog.'"

Pierce took him straight to Madison Animal Hospital. Dempsey had a broken leg, he had lost weight, his heart rate had dropped, and he was having seizures, but he was alive. 

According to Dr. Darren Richards, Pierce found Dempsey in the nick of time. 

“It’s really a miracle. Nine days in the subzero temperatures that we had, and he’s not a very big dog, so he’s lucky,” Richards said. "I think when she found him, he was probably within an hour or two of dying.” 

Dempsey is recovering from surgery to fix his leg, and he's been reuinted with Cyrway. Her mother praised the community for helping them find the dog.

“We had so many people looking, so many people helping us look. So many people putting food out. People are good people,” Boothby said. “At church, our opening prayer was for Dempsey on Sunday morning, so Dempsey touched the hearts of many, many lives.”

Via CBS News

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