Dog's Wild Ride on Tractor Causes Traffic Jam

The old joke postcard about traffic jams in rural Scotland and Ireland pictures sheep cramming narrow country lanes, but this morning it was a different critter to blame altogether: It seems Don the border collie was out with his human, Tom Hamilton, on their sheep farm in Abington, Scotland, when the latter got out of the mini-tractor they were riding in to check on a lamb. Don may have leaned on the tractor's controls, and as the 77-year-old Hamilton tells STV, "I had not put the brake on the tractor and when I turned round I got a fright as the vehicle was careering down the hill, through a gate, and onto the M74 (highway)."

Don's little trip down the hill, in turn, caused a bit of a traffic jam, as Traffic Scotland tweeted, "due to dog taking control of tractor... nope, not joking." But, aside from a tsunami of terrible puns on social media—NPR rounds some up and mentions a "ruff ride" in its headline, while tweeters wondered about "leads" in the "barking mad" story—all ended well: "Don was fine and did not bark during the incident," Hamilton says. The AP, meanwhile, suggests that Don "might want to learn a new trick: applying the brakes." (More border collie stories.)