If you happened to have seen a dark, panting snout looming out of the Solent waterway, traveling at speeds of up to 2 mi/hr between the Isle of Wight and the English mainland on Wednesday, calm down. It was not the Loch Ness Dog.

But you might be even more shocked to learn that it was a 2-year-old Labrador Retriever named "Todd" who had fallen off a yacht and managed to make his way to shore. Peter Loizou, 35, had noticed his dog missing from the deck as the boat passed about a mile off the coast of the Isle of Wight. Frantic, the man searched the windswept waters for four hours but to no avail. "I contacted the harbor master who searched but I then thought, realistically he has drowned," Mr. Loizou told reporters. "I turned back devastated, thinking I never want to go on the boat again."

Meanwhile, Todd's adventure was just beginning. Contrary to what you might expect, the determined pooch did not swim the one-mile distance to the Isle of Wight. Instead, he took the longer route across the Solent, through the busy shipping lanes and against heavy offshore winds pushing him in the opposite direction. Then, about five miles later, he altered course and took a detour up the River Beaulieu.

At last, six hours and ten miles after his journey began, Todd hauled himself onto dry land, practically at his own doorstep. The brilliant Labrador had swum a direct course for his home in Winsor and had covered more than half the distance when he was picked up by a 16-year-old boy and taken to police.

AUSTRALIAN GREYHOUND HAS PERFECT PITCH
Or should we say 'perfect pooch'....
MELBOURNE (Australia) ,July, 2002

Pikelet", a two-year-old Greyhound, has been baying to the beat since he was a pup, says his guardian, a highly-acclaimed performer with the Melbourne City Opera. She said the canine virtuoso simply began mimicking her during rehearsals.

"He's not bad. He's pretty loud and pretty high," she says. The singer also says that she plans on taking Pikelet on the road to her next performance in Canberra. However, the precocious pooch won't be invited to sing with the troupe this time. "There's no way I could I take him to rehearsals, he'd drown everybody out" she laughed. So until the musical world is ready to receive the canine crooning of Pikelet, the undiscovered star will have to confine himself to his own living room, singing the blues.