Alaskan deters black bear with a swift punch, and more

Alaskan deters black bear with a swift punch

When Brooke Collins of Juneau, Alaska, heard her pet dachshund, Fudge, barking frantically in the backyard, she ran outside to see the dog in the firm grip of a black bear. Without thinking, she ran, screaming, up to the bear and punched it in the snout. The shocked bruin dropped the dog and eventually ambled off. “It was all so fast. All I could think about was my dog was going to die,” said Collins, 22, a hairdresser. “I know you’re not supposed to do that, but I didn’t want my dog to be killed.”

Farm worker lassoes dogs to safety

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The lasso skills Jesus Villanueva learned 30 years ago on a Mexican cattle ranch paid off heroically last week. Villanueva had been doing farm work in Moxee, Wash., when he heard a big commotion. Two dogs had been swept into the nearby Roza Canal, and were nearing exhaustion after floating almost three miles. Villanueva took a rope from a police officer on the scene and lassoed one dog on the first try and the second on another. “He just kind of came out of nowhere,” said Noya Deats, the dogs’ grateful owner. “It was amazing how fast he lassoed them.”

70-year-old swims the English channel

Roger Allsopp, a retired surgeon, became the oldest person ever to swim across the English Channel. The 70-year-old grandfather left from Dover, England, and arrived in northern France almost 18 hours later, covering a distance of 21 nautical miles. “The fact that a man of my ‘grand’ age can achieve such a physical and mental challenge proves that you can live younger if you keep active in mind and body,” said Allsopp, who lives on the Channel island of Guernsey. His feat helped raise $1.2 million for cancer research at the University of Southampton.