Brandi the Beagle Survives 70-Foot Jump Off Bridge

After running away and finding herself on a crowded bridge, Brandi only had one way to go: down.

After Brandi the Beagle ran away from her owner and found herself running in traffic, her day went from bad to worse -- and then she jumped off a 70-foot bridge.

Let's back up -- but not before mentioning that Brandi is fine. She just has a lightly bruised tummy because she did a belly flop when she jumped off the bridge. (If you smiled just now, that's okay. It's okay to smile over a lightly bruised tummy sustained during a belly flop, if only for a moment.)

Brandi's trouble with the bridge started earlier that day, when she was taking her usual walk with her owner, Robert Lorenz, according to the New York Daily News. Brandi, who had been abused by her previous owners, doesn't like strangers much, and she didn't like the strangers who approached her on the walk, crowding around her and trying to pet her. She got out of her harness and bolted. 

Unfortunately, she bolted onto the Burlington-Bristol Bridge. It was a poor choice. The bridge was full of traffic, with people -- all of them strangers -- stopping their cars and trying to help her, and there was no way out. 

Except off the side of it. 

“She’s running down the middle of this two-lane bridge with traffic coming at her, she dodges traffic, and finally goes to the side,” Liz Verna, a spokesperson for the Burlington County Bridge Commission, told the Daily News.

It was a 70-foot drop, with swiftly moving currents below. It's a tough leap, for any creature. 

“We have had human jumpers,” Verna said. “I think at least one of them survived, but usually they do not.”

Brandi, however, handled it like a champ. Even with no previous experience on the high dive, or any dive, she nailed the belly flop, dog-paddled against the current, hauled herself ashore -- and promptly hid in the bushes along the riverfront.

Police and witnesses saw her make the jump, and they scoured the area with Lorenz's wife, Alexia -- who was still in her bathrobe, because she had run out of the house like a hero the moment she learned from her husband that their dog was lost. At midnight she finally went home to change out of the bathrobe, and when she returned ... well, let her tell it: 

“I pulled up, and in my headlights, there were her eyes glaring at me in the darkness of the night,” she told CourierPostOnline. “I didn’t want to do anything to scare her, so I slowly grabbed the leash and her treats.”

“I clipped the leash and that was it,” Alexia Lorenz said. “I couldn’t believe it. It was a miracle.”

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Rest In Peace: One of Queen Elizabeth II's Corgis Crosses the Rainbow Bridge

Monty -- a star of the Summer Olympics opening ceremony -- has passed away.

It is with a heavy heart that we report that one of Queen Elizabeth II's Corgis has crossed the Rainbow Bridge. Buckingham Palace confirmed this week that Monty -- one of the Corgis featured in the James Bond sketch for the Summer Olympics Opening Ceremony -- has passed away. 

No details were given about the cause of death or how old the dog was, though we suspect the death might have been from old age, as Monty was originally the Queen Mother's Corgi.

We're not sure which one Monty is in the James Bond video, but according to Corgi Addict, he is the second pooch to trundle adorably down the stairs.

Monty will live on in our hearts and memories as one of the royal Corgis who stole the show at the Summer Olympics. For that he'll always be a gold winner. We hope Monty is now rolling around in the Big Meadow in the Sky and chewing on an Everlasting Rawhide Bone (they have those in dog heaven) and eating tons of pizza and chocolate without getting sick.

The world will be a less adorable place now without Monty in it, but somehow we'll live on, because that's what Monty would want us to do.

Rest in peace, dear furry friend.

Via BuzzFeed and the Huffington Post.

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