Scraps & Treats
Suburban Outfitters
Brix, the canine partner of Westchester police officer Sgt. Mike O’Hagan, was recently outfitted with a new bulletproof, stab-resistant vest by the Lyons Township Dog Training Club. The group began a fund-raising drive, collecting empty ink cartridges and selling Fannie May candy to raise money for the protective K-9 vest, which costs $825 through the Illinois Vest-A-Dog organization. When all was said and done, the group raised enough money for three vests instead of one. Brix was chosen to receive the first vest because of his help capturing a bank robber in August. O’Hagan and Brix were the first K-9 team to arrive on the scene when a bank robber fled LaGrange and fired at police as he led them on a car and foot chase that ended after a 27-hour standoff in Villa Park. The group will choose the recipients of the other two vests from a list of Illinois police dogs and will announce them this month.
Record Rovers
There’s a new champ in town, and in the entire world for that matter. John Garcia and 25 canine representatives of Best Friends Animal Sanctuary in Kanab, UT, recently set the Guinness Book of World Record for most dogs walked by a single person. Garcia successfully guided 25 pooches a total distance of one kilometer to break the record, which was previously held by a man from New Zealand who trekked the same distance with only 11 dogs. But Garcia didn’t stop there. After reaching his goal, Garcia continued on with 22 of the dogs to reach the one-mile marker. All dogs participating in the event were up for adoption, and since then 19 of them have found new homes. Garcia has been working with the Best Friends Hurricane Relief team in Mississippi and plans to attempt another record-breaking dog walk in the future. Find out more about this world-record-holding team at www.BestFriends.org/guinness.
