Adventurous mutt's huge quest

GLOBE-TROTTING: Oscar on Signal Hill

GLOBE-TROTTING: Oscar on Signal Hill

Published Apr 14, 2012

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Oscar is a dog like no other, having travelled to places many humans can only dream of.

In 2009, Oscar set a canine record, becoming the first and only dog to travel around the world in what was dubbed The World Woof Tour. The pooch visited 36 countries, travelling 250 000km across five continents to make a bark about the wonderful benefits of dog adoption and sterilisation.

Besides sneaking into hotels and across border lines, Oscar became the first mutt to ever go “walkies” on the Great Wall of China, the first to paraglide over Rio and the first ever to travel around the globe.

He’s survived crocodiles in the Zambezi River, explored the borders of Pakistan on a rare double-humped camel, kissed the Sphinx at sunrise, paraglided off Lion’s Head, zip-lined over the rain forests of Costa Rica and even made a wish in Rome’s Trevi Fountain.

He has been arrested by the Italian Police, snuck across the Malaysian border, and escaped deadly anacondas in the Amazon. The territorial jetsetter has lifted a leg on many of the world’s most famous landmarks, including the Eiffel Tower, the Parthenon, the Coliseum and Christ the Redeemer in Brazil.

Thanks to an Elvis impersonator, Oscar and his owner Joanne Lefson even got married to each other in Las Vegas.

Certainly, with a passport like no other of his kind, he’s quite the seasoned traveller. But his life is the ultimate fairytale that should never have happened.

In 2004, Oscar sat on death row at the Cape of Good Hope SPCA. With just one day left before he was due to be put down, the unusual looking mutt was adopted by Joanne. It was with this new leash of life that Oscar decided to become the canine ambassador for dog adoption and the face behind the millions of dogs that are sitting on death row.

Oscar is living proof that great dogs are available for adoption at animal shelters, and with adoption rates in SA at only 10 percent, Jo and Oscar encourage all South Africans to choose adoption as their first option when looking to acquire a dog.

“Twenty-five percent of all dogs dying for a second chance in shelters are pure-bred dogs, so no matter what you’re looking for, a shelter has it all,” Joanne adds.

If you’re wondering what the part-Alsatian-corgi-spaniel-cross-with-a-little-basset-hound mixed-in mutt does when he’s not chasing cats, or meeting Pluto in Disneyland, well that’s quite simple. He’s been gearing up for his latest campaign aimed at raising even more awareness for SA’s underdogs.

From today, Oscar teams up with the world’s biggest hound, a dog-shaped hot air balloon called Oscar maximus, for a campaign called the Pedigree Adoption Tour.

The sky’s the limit for Oscar, proving that it’s a dog’s life after all.

Oscar will be at Jacaranda Day at Loftus Versveld today, at Fora open day tomorrow and at Mary Fitzgerald Square on Monday.

For the full details of the tour or to find out where to adopt a dog near you, log on to www.worldwooftour.com

-Saturday Star

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