Pets

Jimmy Graham is VERY fortunate to be alive today ... the NFL star told reporters he was going NINETY MPH before flipping his car in that terrifying rollover March accident.

Graham walked away from the wreck in the Miami area unscathed ... but when he broke it all down for media members at his press conference Tuesday, it's truly hard to fathom how he wasn't seriously injured in the crash.

The 34-year-old says it all initially happened because he saw a cop car going down an off-ramp with its reverse lights on.

"He was reversing," the Chicago Bears tight end said. "So I got over two lanes and, you know, the sun is kind of coming up, and as I go up over that hill, I'm looking at the cop and when I look up, there's a disabled vehicle on the center lane."

"And I'm going about 90. So, probably about 15 yards away, so I swerved to the left and barely missed him, but I was headed for a bridge so I had to make kind of a last-minute decision and decided to turn right and flip it to avoid jumping that thing."

Graham says cops told him he rolled his vehicle over FOUR times and skidded on his roof for about 100 yards.

Somehow, though, Jimmy says he and his dog were able to simply get out of the ride after it came to a stop and walk away.

"Sparks and glass is going everywhere and I'm just sitting there in the seat belt," Jimmy said. "I get out the seat belt and I'm on the roof kind of hollering for my dog. I don't hear her so I get out and she's in the back and we just walked way."

"Couple hours later, ended up flying [out for a charity event]. So, it was a wild one."

A Pekingese named Wasabi hotdogged his way to Best in Show at the 2021 Westminster Dog Show ... following in the footsteps of his doggone brother!!!

It's a pretty incredible feat, but Wasabi's owner and trainer, David Fitzpatrick, already boasts one Best in Show winner ... his other Pekingese, Malachy, won the event in 2012.

But, Sunday's event was all about 3-year-old Wasabi, who flaunted a "proper Pekingese gait" that looks "like a goldfish moving through the water" ... according to the announcers.

Wasabi beat out 6 other group winners to take the top prize, with Bourbon the whippet coming in second.

There was also another very famous dog owner involved in the competition at the second-oldest continuous sporting event in the U.S. (behind the Kentucky Derby) ... Barry Bonds!!!

MLB's all-time home run leader's miniature schnauzer Rocky was in the mix, and although the good boy didn't win ... Barry was a proud dog dad for sure.

One more historical note -- this year's event was held at the Lyndhurst Mansion in Tarrytown, New York, and not Madison Square Garden ... where it has been held every year since 1877. The move was the result of the pandemic.

Kelsey Salmon wants the lash tech whose dog bit off her eyelid to take responsibility, starting with covering a mountain of medical bills -- but instead, she says the woman's ducking her.

Kelsey tells us the lash tech hasn't reached out to her even once since the woman's chihuahua jumped up and bit off Kelsey's eyelid, complete with her new lashes.

She says the tech's already blocked her on Instagram, but the 23-year-old from Atlanta wants to make it clear ... she's not trying to get rich with a lawsuit. Kelsey says she just wants her medical bills paid. Not to say that will be cheap -- Kelsey estimates the total could be $20k-$30k, based on the 2 ambulance trips she's already taken and the reattachment surgery.

What she doesn't want is her family getting stuck with the bill, because she says a previous medical drama -- involving blood clots, a stroke and open-heart surgery -- ended up costing them $4 million. She says that's the only reason her family might sue.

The other issue at hand is the dog -- we asked if she thought it should be put down, and you can tell she's really on the fence. Kelsey says she's a dog lover, but also knows she doesn't want anyone else to endure the hell she is right now.

Dr. Jill Biden and Kate Middleton met for the first time ever ... and everything looked rosy, including their elegant outfits.

The First Lady and Duchess of Cambridge met Friday in Cornwall, England ... not too far from where President Biden is attending the G7 Summit.  Meanwhile, Kate and Jill are focusing on education and kiddos.

They toured the Connor Downs Academy and visited a classroom for 4- and 5-year-olds ... who were reading the book, "Greta and the Giant." Both women wore masks indoors while chatting with the kids about the book.

They later headed outside and visited some of the animals on the premises. The kids look after some rabbits there ... which explains why Jill was carrying a huge plate of carrots.

They also took part in a roundtable discussion on early childhood education. Jill, of course, has spent decades as an educator. She's currently a college professor ... so this trip and the discussion itself are, no doubt, especially meaningful to her.

Kelsey Salmon's trip to get her eyelashes done ended in the worst possible way ... with a little dog attacking her and biting off the finished product, along with her entire left eyelid!!!

The photos are brutal -- that's a warning for the queasy -- but not as brutal as the experience the 23-year-old from Atlanta has been through since going to a lab technician she found on Instagram.

According to Kelsey ... her normal lash lady was booked, so she went to a lash tech who worked out of her home ... and had a pet chihuahua.

Kelsey says the dog jumped up on her lash bed while she was getting her lashes done, she was petting it ... and everything was fine. But, when she was done, she says she sat up and the dog was on the floor looking up at her.

"Then, out of nowhere -- it happened so fast that I didn't have time to pull back -- he jumped up, bit me in the face and broke my eyelid off."

What Kelsey describes next is a horrific scene of blood and chaos as the ambulance was called, and she was rushed to the ER. After hours of waiting, she says she had to go to another hospital for surgery ... and miraculously, they were able to successfully reattach it.

To make this all worse, Kelsey was getting her lashes done for a birthday trip to Hawaii when this all went down. Fortunately, she still got to go, but with her left eye completely sewn shut ... and she says the doctors told her it could take up to a year to fully heal.

While the East Coast is dealing with the cicada plague, some L.A. towns are dealing with their own shrieking nightmare ... hundreds of peacocks running amok!!!

The beautiful-until-they're-in-your-backyard birds are delivering sleepless nights for folks in the L.A. County cities of Arcadia, Pasadena and San Marino. If you haven't had the pleasure ... peacocks reliably sound off at dawn with a noise so piercing, some neighbors described it as babies being tortured ... next to a very large microphone.

The birds -- which often travel in packs -- are everywhere, from sidewalks and streets to yards and roofs ... and they're damaging cars and yards.

They've been roaming the towns since a pair were brought back from India in the 19th century by a wealthy man named Lucky Baldwin. It's unclear exactly how many birds are in the area now, but their numbers have grown exponentially during the pandemic.

Things are so out of control, neighbors have reportedly gotten into heated arguments over how to deal with the birds.

The L.A. County Board of Supervisors is trying to get a handle on this ... beginning with drafting an ordinance that would prohibit feeding the peacocks.

Ezekiel Elliott's Rottweiler has been accused of being a very bad boy yet again ... TMZ Sports has learned another person is claiming the NFL star's dog violently attacked them.

It's all spelled out in a new lawsuit ... in which a pet resort employee says Elliott's Rottweiler viciously bit him on March 25, 2021.

Brandon Williams says he was working for Bliss Pet Resort in Prosper, Texas ... when he encountered the three dogs Elliott had boarded.

Williams claims he was taking the Cowboys running back's Rottweiler and two bulldogs out to relieve themselves -- when all of a sudden, Elliott's Rottweiler attacked.

Williams says the dog seized his right arm, clamped down, and threw him to the ground. Williams claims the bite was so ferocious, he needed stitches and was "seriously injured."

Williams is now suing Elliott and Bliss Pet Resort ... seeking more than $250,000, but less than $1 million.

Of course, this is FAR from the first time Elliott's dogs have been accused of attacks ... he was already battling a separate lawsuit in which a pool cleaner claimed she was bitten by his dogs in March 2020.

In that case, a woman says she went to clean Elliott's pool in Frisco, TX ... when Zeke's Rottweiler and two bulldogs severely mangled her arm.

As we previously reported, Elliott is also currently under police investigation after cops say his dogs, including his Rottweiler, escaped his Frisco, Texas home last month and bit neighbors.

WWE superstar Alexa Bliss is still mourning the death of her beloved pet pig -- but will honor his memory by making sure no other animal suffers the way he did.

As we previously reported, Alexa's pig, Larry-Steve, suffered a medical emergency last week -- but she could not find a veterinarian in her area who would treat the animal.

Due to the lack of medical care, Larry-Steve died ... one day before his 4th birthday.

Alexa tells TMZ Sports she's still very shaken up by the whole situation -- but now feels motivated to save other animals in similar situations.

"We just know that, unfortunately, there's not enough vets that are able to treat pigs or any tools to be able to help larger animals," Bliss told us at LAX.

Bliss says she's been contacted by a bunch of animal owners who experienced similar issues with their larger non-traditional pets and she feels compelled to help.

So far, Bliss says she's raised more than $16,000 for a pig rescue in Florida and will name it after her late pet.

"They're building an insulated pig house for the winter and it's gonna be called The House Larry-Steve Built."

Alexa says she's not sure if she'll get another pet pig -- she's still in a lot of emotional pain -- but will stay deeply involved in the animal community.

"I would love to keep rescuing animals and pigs specifically because they are so emotionally smart. They have the learning capability and understanding of a 3-year-old child. They can feel grief and they can cry real tears."

A California teenager rushed to defend her dogs from a family of bears, shoving the biggest bear off a wall and scaring it away ... and it's all on video.

The incredible scene played out Monday afternoon in the San Gabriel Valley, and you see a huge bear and two bear cubs walking along a backyard wall when four pet dogs scurry over and nearly get swiped by a huge bear paw.

With her dogs barking like crazy, a 17-year-old named Hailey rushed over to see what was the matter, springing into action when she realized there were bears on the prowl.

Ya gotta see the video ... the teen runs straight for the big bear, shoving it back into a neighbor's yard with both hands and rushing her dogs back to safety.

The bear gets back on the cement wall, but doesn't want any more of Hailey ... hightailing it off the property.

Cruella de Vil is painted as being traumatized by Dalmatians in Disney's latest offering ... supposedly, because these "mongrels" killed her ma, which is getting a lot of head scratches.

The villain from "101 Dalmatians" gets her own backstory in the new "Cruella" flick, which is headed up by Emma Stone ... and word on the street is that part of why Cruella has it out for this breed is that they were sicced on her mom ... in a release-the-hounds fashion.

Different clips and stills have surfaced showing the flashback scene, which shows kid Cruella having to watch the woman who raised her, Catherine, get pushed over a balcony ledge by three seemingly rabid Dalmatians, who go after her on Baroness von Hellman's command.

She plummets to her death ... and the implication is that Cruella's left scarred for life -- and partially explains her obsession with the pooches going forward. In case you forgot, the OG Cruella was notorious for literally skinning Dalmatians and using them as furs.

Disney apparently doesn't quite go that far in the movie -- although different reviews say they allude to Stone's Cruella having that idea on her mind. We should also note that the character has a voice-over moment where she explicitly says she doesn't blame Dalmatians, but a lot of folks just aren't buying that ... and are calling Disney's origin rationale lame.

What the studio heads/writers did here (according to PO'd viewers) is make Dalmatians the fall dog -- when, in reality, they're actually super friendly pooches ... and don't have a rep for attacking like the movie portrays. Folks say it's a cop-out explainer that's lazy and inaccurate.

Harambe the gorilla has been dead for exactly 5 years, and the interest in his life and death has not subsided a bit.

A photo of the beloved ape is being auctioned off as an NFT as a way of memorializing his passing.

Harambe was killed after a child entered his enclosure and he began dragging the child around. The Cincinnati Zoo's Dangerous Animal Response Team decided there was a life-threatening situation they had to abate and shot him dead.

There was considerable controversy over the decision to shoot Harambe, particularly since Harambe did what apes do ... he was the true victim.

Social media has not forgotten Harambe, who was 17 when he was killed. He had celebrated his birthday the day before his death.

Amy Cooper -- who was branded Central Park "Karen" after calling cops on a Black man -- is taking her former employer to court, saying they painted her with a broad, racist brush.

Cooper is suing investment firm Franklin Templeton, where she worked before this whole mess, alleging defamation, negligence, infliction of emotional distress and racial discrimination.

In the docs, obtained by TMZ, Cooper claims FT fired her prematurely and without having all the facts. She goes on to say the honchos jumped on the bandwagon that was spreading across the country ... to portray her as another "privileged white female 'Karen.'"

She says they painted her as a racist when they announced they were cutting her loose in the days that followed ... saying they did not "tolerate racism of any kind," which Cooper believes wrongly labeled her, and helped ruin her life and future prospects.

Not just that, but Cooper says Franklin Templeton's claim of doing a full investigation -- which only lasted a couple days or so before they canned her -- wasn't up to snuff, and she claims they failed to review the entirety of her 911 calls for context.

Adding insult to injury ... Cooper claims FT didn't bother pulling notes from the New York City Park Board Meetings -- which she claims would've shed light on unproven allegations Christian Cooper, the guy with whom she had beef, had been noted as a pest in the park.

AC claims what was really going on that day is that Christian targeted her in a supposed ongoing feud between himself -- an avid bird watcher -- and dog owners in Central Park. She says she didn't call 911 out of racism, but out of genuine fear.

Something smells funky ... at least to the company behind those Little Tree car air fresheners, which is suing popular pet food company Chewy for allegedly ripping off its famous product.

Car Freshener Corporation claims Chewy is pimping a dog toy it describes as a “Frisco Retro Tree Freshener Plush Squeaky Dog Toy."

According to docs, obtained by TMZ, the Little Tree company says the dog toy is suspiciously similar in shape, color and overall appearance to its distinctively abstract Tree design.

In the suit, Car Freshener says for over 60 years it has built up its Little Tree air freshener brand ... slapping the tree on t-shirts, hats, socks, stickers and luggage tags, among other products.

What's more, Car Freshener says it's sold third parties like Buffalo Wild Wings, Purina PetCare, Kia and Capital One licenses to use the trees ... but NOT Chewy.

Car Freshener claims Chewy's dog toy copies the shape and basic dimensions of its Little Trees air freshener, while also featuring the white diagonal and horizontal banners emblazoned across the middle and bottom of the Little Trees air fresheners.

Car Freshener's pissed consumers will think it's in bed with Chewy ... although, it's unclear why that would be a bad thing.

WWE superstar Alexa Bliss is mourning the death of her pet pig, Larry-Steve -- claiming the animal died in severe pain after multiple veterinarians turned them away because he was just too big.

Bliss had raised Larry-Steve since birth back in 2017 -- and loved him like a member of the family at her home in the Orlando area. He evolved into a social media star who racked up nearly 90,000 followers on Instagram.

But, tragedy struck on Monday -- when Bliss says she noticed Larry had become extremely ill and it was clear he was suffering.

"Larry is very ill, can’t move or walk. In a lot of pain," Bliss said ... "His usual pig vet said she is not comfortable treating him in his current condition."

Bliss added, "Most vets are not comfortable treating pigs. If anyone knows of a pig vet please let me know."

Bliss says she ended up reaching out to 13 different animal doctors but couldn't find anyone close to care for Larry.

"Unfortunately in the state that Larry’s in right now there’s absolutely no way we are going to be able to transport him. He is in too much pain and weak."

Bliss says some vets hung up on claiming they only treat pigs "up to a certain weight" ... and Larry was just too big.

Later that day, Alexa had to leave for work to shoot "Monday Night Raw" -- but left him in the care of her family while she spoke with him on speakerphone.

"It is heartbreaking that all I can do is just listen to him squeal in pain and no one will come help. No one will even just come and give him pain meds to help take care of his pain."

Sadly, Larry ultimately passed away early Tuesday morning.

Alexa posted a message on IG noting he died on the day before his 4th birthday.

"This morning Larry-Steve gained his Angel wings," Bliss said ... "I’m so sorry we couldn’t find you the help you needed in time."

"Some people didn’t agree to help you. But I want you to know Larry, YOUR LIFE MATTERED. We are completely heartbroken."

Lady Gaga's dog walker says he's constantly reminded of that horrifying moment he was shot, because strangers constantly want to talk to him about it ... and he's tired of it.

Ryan Fischer poured his heart out Monday, saying over the last few weeks -- ever since Gaga's dognappers were arrested -- he's had to relive the trauma of being shot and nearly killed ... making his recovery and healing that much more difficult.

He says people come up to him and say, "You're Ryan! You got shot. You were shot! Where were you shot? Where'd they shoot you?" In the emotional IG post, Ryan added it's strange being known as the Gaga guy who got shot, but even worse ... he says those conversations bring him right back to the moment he got shot in the chest at point-blank range.

Ryan says, "It's not intentional; it comes from kindness and compassion that I welcome ... It just hasn't always been easy to navigate as I continue to find myself."

He also says he feels like he doesn't have a purpose "because I'm not yet in the proper headspace to care for dogs." Our Gaga sources say Ryan was back at work as recently as last week, but it's unclear when he decided he couldn't do it anymore.

TMZ broke the story ... Ryan was shot in February and thieves ultimately made off with Koji and Gustav ... leaving him bleeding and yelling for help on the sidewalk.

The man who claims to have found and returned Daniel Sturridge's stolen dog in 2019 is now suing the soccer star ... alleging the athlete has STILL not paid him the reward money he promised.

Foster Washington spelled it all out in a new lawsuit, obtained by TMZ Sports ... saying Sturridge owes him reward money -- which was reported to be around $37,000 -- for helping him get his Pomeranian, Lucci, back nearly 2 years ago.

Washington says after Sturridge claimed the dog had been stolen in a July 2019 burglary in Los Angeles ... Washington found Lucci on the street.

Washington says because Sturridge reportedly offered a reward, he reached out.

In the suit, Washington says he got in touch with Sturridge and ultimately returned the dog expecting the reward money in exchange.

The problem? Washington claims Sturridge -- who's reportedly made over $40 million in his soccer career -- never paid him a dime ... so now he's suing him over it, claiming Sturridge breached a contract by not living up to the reward offer.