Poppy the Springer Spaniel Wins Quadathlon! (or she deserves to...)

Poppy the Springer Spaniel was out for a walk on Valentine's Day when she saw a seagull. While we all know how tempting that is, when humans are yelling STOP! STOP! NO! POPPY! COME BACK!, it's generally a good idea to stop whatever you're doing. It's usually for your own good in the long run.

In this case, Poppy had taken off like a bullet chasing said seagull and chased it right off the edge of the Seven Sisters' view point at Seaford in East Sussex - a sheer 300' cliff over a stony beach.

To her credit, Poppy was hauling ass and flew so far out that he missed the rocks and belly flopped into the the English Channel. She then dog paddled (barking) back to the small bit of shore, where she was rescued by the RNLI (coast guard), which happened to be nearby doing exercises when alerted by telephone of the situation.

Poppy was rescued by lifeboat, cold and shivering, with a collapsed lung, but is expected to make a full recovery.

Surely she should be offered some sort of honorary Quadathlon Olympic medal for this, albeit stupid, feat: Running, long jump, diving and swimming!

See the RNLI rescue footage via www.abcnews.go.com here.

I especially like the rescuer's comments to Poppy (in a lovely English accent): "Come here. Hello lovely. Hello... It's OK. Nice and warm. Good girl. Good girl!"

Note to humans:
Dogs should be kept on a leash - especially near gigantic sheer cliffs!

Original story at ananova.com and thesun.co.uk.
RNLI video at abcnews.go.com.