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Coinciding with the Pit Grave culture (4200-3600 years before our era), coming from Southern Europe, the Neolithic communities of the north-eastern Iberian Peninsula started a ceremonial activity related to the sacrifice and burial of dogs. The high amount of cases that are recorded in Catalonia suggests it was a general practice and it proves the tight relationship between humans and these animals, which, apart from being buried next to them, were fed a similar diet to humans'... The study analyses the remains of twenty-six dogs found in funerary structures from four sites and necropolises of the Barcelona region, and has...

(CBS) AMITYVILLE, N.Y. Two kayakers are alive thanks to a quick-thinking pooch. This is the kind of story you might have seen on the old television series "Lassie." Randy and Kristine Ronback adopted ‘Smooch’ only two weeks ago. They got the 2-year-old border collie to help geese off the lawn of their picturesque home on the Amityville river. It's a job their other pets didn't show much interest in, but little did they know Smooch would end up a hero. Digg This Story! It all began at breakfast Sunday morning. “Smooch all of a sudden started barking and didn't stop,”...

Bark helps save lost toddler Toddler Connor Cummings wandered away from his rural home Friday night, gone suddenly into the surrounding woods. More than 300 people on foot, all-terrain vehicles and in helicopters scoured the dense brush for two miles around the Granville County house, about 50 miles north of Raleigh. But hearts grew heavier as night fell, thunderstorms raged and another day passed. It was about 8:30 p.m. Saturday when family friend Steve Brewer, picking through the forest on horseback after more than 24 hours in search, heard a bark. "It's just like one of those Lassie stories," he...

In a case of life imitating fiction, a 13-month-old cattle dog named "Lassie" helped to rescue its injured master after he fell from a horse in eastern Australia, a media report said Tuesday. George Crowther, a 90-year-old farmer from Queensland state, broke his pelvis when he was pitched from a bucking horse and his foot became caught in the reins, the Australian Broadcasting Corp. reported. Crowther's dog, Lassie, came to the rescue, snuggling in next to Crowther to keep him warm. When darkness fell, Crowther's wife came searching in the woods with a flashlight, but couldn't hear his feeble cries....

Bill Burns is a very lucky man. By all rights, he probably would have died Thursday night if not for his dogs and fate. Burns has diabetes and needs to exercise to keep it under control. His walk late Thursday almost ended in disaster. According to his wife Pam, Burns left his Centerton home sometime around 9 p.m. Thursday to take his nightly walk. He apparently began walking along the railroad track eastbound to Tidewater Road. From Tidewater, he planned to go south on Centerton Road, then back west back to Centerton and home. Normally when he takes his walks,...

A sheepdog has carried a baby two miles from a remote field where it was abandoned to his owner's home. Police in Raducaneni, Lasi county, Romania say the dog discovered the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes. Detectives say they have found the exact place where the child was left, after finding traces of blood and clothes used by the baby's mother. The dog appeared in the middle of the night carrying a bag in his mouth, in which the baby was found. The animal started barking and scratching the door until his owners came out to see what the matter...