Our late and beloved lab. I love everything about this photograph, though it’s not very clear and he looks fuzzy. The alert expression visible even through his smudginess. His giant paws (he grew into them). The pricked up ears. He’s looking at my mother (who took the photograph) the object of his unconditional adoration.

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Dog honoured for tackling burglar

A Labrador who fought to protect its owners from a knife-wielding burglar has been honoured for his bravery.

Toby was stabbed four times in the chest and legs by the intruder but still managed to chase him out.

The Morton family, from Barnoldswick in Lancashire, had been staying at Leconfield Barracks in East Yorkshire.

They awoke to find their pet in a pool of blood. But the eight-month-old survived and has been awarded by the animal charity, PDSA.

The armed burglar, who attacked Toby with three knives taken from the kitchen, was sentenced to three-and-a-half years for the offence.

Toby suffered a punctured lung in the attack, in June 2007, as he fought to stop the offender going upstairs to the sleeping family.

After succeeding in chasing the offender out of the building Toby then woke his owner, Jonathan Morton, by barking.
“ Had it not been for Toby’s determined barking and lunging at the intruder, Mr Morton would not have been aware of the threat to his family. ”
Chris Heaps, PDSA deputy chairman

Mr Morton and his wife Samantha praised their pet’s actions.

He said: “Toby is our hero. I dread to think what could have happened if he had not intervened that night.”

The Labrador has been presented with the PDSA Certificate for Animal Bravery by the charity’s senior deputy chairman Chris Heaps.

He said: “Had it not been for Toby’s determined barking and lunging at the intruder, Mr Morton would not have been aware of the threat to his family.

“Toby is indeed a worthy recipient of the PDSA Certificate for Animal Bravery.”
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The rousing, patriotic sweep of Elgar’s Nimrod, the mournful tones of Nessun Dorma and the urgent eight-note allegro con brio opening to Beethoven’s fifth – they have all been helping animal behaviour experts to make life more comfortable for the elephants at Belfast zoo.

The researchers have discovered that playing classical music to the animals reduces abnormal behaviours such as swaying, pacing and trunk tossing, although they said elephants don’t seem to have a favourite composer.

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