Dog gives dad the biggest hug after four months apart

Dog Train, World's Nicest Police Officer, Tattooed Lobster No Images? [Click here]( March 13, 2018 Introducing our brand-new newsletter! Designed with your feedback in mind, now you can read the Dodo stories you love all in one easy place. Catch us here Monday through Friday, and invite your family and friends to sign up [here](. Today we have the sweetest dog-owner reunion, a very happy eagle and some mischievous lost dogs. 1. Dog Hugs Dad Who Came Back To The Shelter To Save Him Photo Credit: Sarah Jurgensen Throop Four months ago, Lewis Jimenez had to do something very hard. He had to take his pit bull, Titus, back to the shelter where he’d originally adopted him. But unlike many people who surrender their pets and never return for them, Jimenez came back. Jimenez adopted Titus when he was 2 years old at the Austin Animal Center in Texas. He hadn’t planned on getting a pit bull, but when he saw shelter volunteers walking Titus out in the yard, he fell for him. “He was jumping and happy, and I thought, ‘Man, that’s the one I want,’” Jimenez told The Dodo. Jimenez and Titus were inseparable, and Jimenez couldn’t imagine his life without Titus. “He’s like my big old kid,” Jimenez said. “He’s part of me.” But last year, Jimenez was told he couldn’t keep Titus or he would be evicted. He didn’t have anywhere else to move to, or someone who could watch Titus — so sadly brought him back to the shelter. The shelter quickly saw how difficult it was for Jimenez to give up Titus — and how sad Titus was to lose his owner. “The shelter is a really, really stressful place for dogs,” Jennifer Olohan, communications and media manager at Austin Animal Center, told The Dodo. “Some dogs handle it better than others, but Titus wasn’t one of them. He was really stressed out. When you got him out of his kennel, he was great — super playful and really sweet. But in his kennel he was sullen and really sad.” Jimenez and his family visited Titus as often as they could, but it was always tough to say goodbye. “The staff would see them in tears as they were leaving,” Olohan said. “So the whole situation was just heartbreaking.” For four months, Jimenez never stopped working to get Titus out of there. Finally, the day came when he was able to move to a new place — with a yard just for Titus. “Titus was thrilled and so was Lewis,” Olohan said. “We had some staff and volunteers there, and everyone was crying. Some people knew about their story already, and knew that Lewis was kind of waiting in the wings for Titus.” A photographer documented their reunion, and the photos went viral. Jimenez is shown embracing Titus, as Titus’ face glows with a big doggy smile. “I was overwhelmed,” Jimenez said. “A lot of things were going through my head.” Titus immediately settled back into his life with Jimenez and his family. “He said that Titus is lounging on the couch, even though he’s not supposed to, but they’re giving him a break since he’s had a rough go at the shelter,” Olohan said. “They’re beyond happy to have him back — he was doing everything he could to make sure that he got Titus back.” 2. Eagle Found Tied To Pole Has Best Reaction To Freedom Photo Credit: Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary In the forests of Africa, crowned eagles are one of the largest and most powerful species of birds. But this one was heading toward a life of certain neglect. Captured from the wild and tied up by ropes so that he couldn’t walk or fly, it was only a matter of minutes before he would be sold off to someone as a pet at the garage in Monrovia, Liberia, he had been taken to. He stood hunched over, frightened in the unfamiliar environment as people bustled around him. Luckily, an out-of-uniform forestry officer was in the right place at the right time when he noticed two men announce they were selling the bird. “The officer told the men he wanted to buy it and directed them to where he’d meet them with the money,” Luke Brannon, manager for Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary, told The Dodo. “He rang ahead and organized for officers to arrest them.” By that time, the eagle had his legs tied together and was wrapped in a canvas bag — evidence that the men had smuggled him. While being arrested, the men claimed they had found the bird on the side of the road and thought he was an owl. Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary picked up the eagle that evening and took him back to its rescue center, where caretakers luckily discovered the only injury he had was to one of his eyes. “Upon health checking when we got back, it was clear it had a floating ulcer on its right eye,” Brannon said. “This would require medicated drops four times daily to heal. [But] with the eagle being extremely strong and feisty, coupled with the stress factor, it was decided once, twice daily maximum. ” Unlike many other birds of prey the sanctuary has seized over the years, the eagle’s wing and tail feathers were unclipped — meaning he was still a candidate to return to the wild as soon as his eye healed. Over the next few days of treatment, it was clear the eagle was feeling better. He was perching and moving around normally, so Brannon and the team moved him to a larger enclosure to double-check his flying skills. “It could fly well and was feeding well,” Brannon said. Photo Credit: Libassa Wildlife Sanctuary After 10 days in the sanctuary’s care, the eagle was finally well enough to return to his home — and the sanctuary staffers were very eager to see him take off again. In their experience, it’s not always a guarantee that injured birds will be releasable. After capturing him and loading him up for the trip, Brannon and the team left early in the morning for the long drive back to the location the eagle was originally taken from. Once they arrived, the team carried the transport box into the forest and opened the door — and the eagle let out a loud screech. After facing an uncertain future just days before, the bird didn’t waste any time getting back to business. He spread his giant wings and took flight immediately back to his home. By all accounts, the sight was breathtaking. “Taking flight into the forest was something truly special to witness,” Brannon said. 3. Lost Dogs Surprise Cops By Stealing Their Patrol Car Photo Credit: Polizei Sachsen-Anhalt What began as a run-of-the-mill call to remove some debris from a roadway ended up being more memorable than anyone could have imagined — thanks to two wayward pups who did the most adorable thing to ask for help. And they weren't about to take no for an answer. Following reports of broken tire parts in the middle of the Autobahn highway, officers from Germany's Saxony-Anhalt Police were dispatched to clear the hazard. Shortly after arriving on scene and blocking the road, however, the cops' attention was diverted from the task at hand. There, emerging from an embankment on the roadside, was a pair of pups. Unaccompanied and seemingly lost, the dogs apparently used the lack of traffic to make their way to help. The cops' patrol car, with its doors left open, turned out to be the perfect place to find it. Seeing their car had been commandeered came as quite a surprise to the officers, but fortunately they got the message loud and clear. The dogs wanted to get out of there and to find their way back home. A police report on the incident described the dogs as "determined." Sure enough, after the cops regained their composure, they were happy to comply. They drove the lost pups to a local animal shelter where, thankfully, their stay wasn't long. Within a few short hours, the dogs' owner contacted authorities and came to pick up the pets — relieved, no doubt, but also perhaps a little embarrassed by their run-in with the law. Cats Who Sabotage Everything [Facebook]( [Twitter]( [YouTube]( [Instagram]( The Dodo 100 Crosby St., 201 New York, NY 10012 [Forward]( [Unsubscribe](