Now that's a big hoax!

Because I love big dogs, people send me big dog photos. I recently received the above photo (with horse) and this blurb:

Hercules: The World's Biggest Dog Ever According to Guinness World Records. Hercules was recently awarded the honorable distinction of World's Biggest Dog by Guinness World Records. Hercules is an English Mastiff who has a 38-inch neck and weighs 282 pounds.

With "paws the size of softballs" (reports the Boston Herald), the
three-year-old monster is far larger and heavier than his breed's standard 200lb. limit. Hercules' owner Mr. Flynn says that Hercules weight is natural and not induced by a bizarre diet: "I fed him normal food and he just "grew"...and grew...and grew...and grew.

*****

Hubby and I had a good laugh over this one. First, we've met the real Hercules, and that gray Neopolitan mastiff with the horse ain't him. Hercules is/was an English Mastiff, and when we met him, our dog, Justus (in the unretouched photo with the boy), was heavier. Plus, this was back in 2001, and Hercules was at least four years old then.

We met Hercules when we were invited to take Justus to be on "Live with Regis and Kelli." Gelman decided we'd have a "weigh off" on this giant teeter-totter contraption. Hercules, who had been on a diet, weighed less than Justus, but this mastiff from New Jersey named Moose, outweighed Jussy. (Moose definitely needed a diet, though.)

I'd bet my booties that the Neo photo is a hoax . . . someone got clever with Photoshop. Justus (with my then sixteen-year-old son) was 275 pounds, and a mastiff who weighs 300 has a major weight problem.

But it sure makes for a startling picture!

~~Angie