Wives and husbands come and go, children leave, friends fade into abstractions on Facebook. The dog is generally there for life, all of his or all of yours, whichever comes first. Hunter, who died Sunday night at home and surrounded by his people, was there for life. It was really his second life, which began when I pulled his numb body from a freezing, half-empty swimming pool 10 years ago this month.

Neil Young has understandably made a very big deal out of his one-of-a-kind LincVolt, a 1959 Lincoln Continental convertible that's been retrofitted into an electric car. The Canadian icon has been driving the one-million-dollar prototype around North America, intermittently documenting his trips, all in a concerted effort to promote green energy. He probably wasn't documenting the experience two Fridays ago, when the LincVolt broke down in the Sierra Nevadas, and he was momentarily stranded.

A man attacked by a rabid bat in the Mojave National Preserve will probably die if not found and treated by health officials. Eyewitnesses say the bat landed on the mystery man's neck outside the desert park's book store at the Kelso Depot between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The man wandered off, oblivious, and the bat fell dead from rabies.