A border collie chasing gulls (Photo credit: Flickr photostream of BuckarooBob)A border collie in Elmira N.Y. is probably thanking the big dog in the sky today after landing every dog’s dream job.
She won’t be herding sheep or doing police work or guiding the blind or sniffing out bombs like other working dogs. No, Sammi will be chasing ring-billed gulls on Elmira’s stretch of the Chemung River. Apparently the gulls are there in force, making a mess and causing problems, and the city wants them gone.
City manager John Burin assures that no gulls will be harmed while Sammi is doing her job. The 7-year-old dog was a champion herder, and has worked with ducks and geese in the past.
“The dog basically harasses them to the point where the birds want to go some place else,” he says. “Now, where they’re going go we’re not sure.”
The gulls probably won’t too happy, and some bird advocates’ feathers may get ruffled, but for Sammi, life doesn’t just doesn’t get any better than this.
Sources: WETM-TV, TheGazette.com
Kim and I were immediately drawn to a friendly Leonberger, only to find that one of the women in the booth lives not five miles from my home and recognized my name. The upside: The next time she breeds, I get to go snuggle big furry puppers. Awesome. Pictured is Gunther, who is “still growing” at 130 pounds. If I could have snuck him into carry-on luggage, I would have. What a sweetheart he is! (The light isn’t great in the Long Beach convention center, so everything ends up a little blurry when you’re not that good a photographer and you’re shooting with a smart phone). 