Dog Stars

Two stories from The Week magazine this week.

Scott Seymour was debating whether to euthanize his 9 year old bulldog, Brittany, who was dying of stomach cancer. Instead .. he decided to give Brittany steroids to ease the pain in her last few weeks of life. Seymour's decision paid off last week when his house caught fire and a barking Brittany woke him up. Both master and pet escaped safely. "She never, ever barks when I'm sleeping," said Seymour. "She was demanding that I get up. And it saved my life.""

"British police believed they had a hostage standoff on their hands when they received an emergency call in which the caller could be heard whimpering and a man shouting, "Come out or else! I'm warning you!" The line then went dead. When police called back, they reached a woman who reported that Bailey, her 14 month old golden retriever, had stolen her cordless phone and, pursued by her angry husband, taken it to his hiding place behind the garden shed, where he gnawed on its keypad."

Bailey claims he won't be rescuing his owner from a fire.