By Cherise Udell

Last week  in the town of Norfolk, Virginia, 911 dispatchers received three near-hysterical calls that a lion was roaming the streets.

One caller reported: “There was a lion that ran across the street — a baby lion. It was about the size of a Labrador retriever.” Another caller exclaimed, “I don’t know if it got away from the zoo or what.”

This wouldn’t be the first time that lion got loose in an American town, so the police called the Virginia Zoo and said there were reports of a lion on the loose. The Zoo quickly counted their felines and responded, “if it is a lion, it is not from our zoo.”

Police zoomed to the sighting locations and discovered that the “lion” was really a labradoodle dog shaved to look like a lion — and not just any lion, but the lion mascot of Old Dominion University. You see, this particular dog was the school’s mascot, his name is Charles the Monarch and he has his own Facebook page. His tagline is: Just your Everyday Party Animal.

Charles the Monarch’s owner apologized for causing local panic and admits this is not the first time  he has been the subject of frantic calls to the police. People are always doing a double-take when they see him. ” I tell people he is a Lab-a-Lion, and half the people believe that.”

For more on this story go to: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/lion-dog-causes-panic.html#ixzz2IAsiK8zX