Here’s some mid-week cheer for you.

Check out Harbor, the world’s record holding dog for longest “earspan”.

I couldn’t help but laugh out loud when I saw this photo.  He looks like he’s about to fly away!

Harbor is a coonhound.  Like other scent hounds, his long ears help to sweep smells from the ground towards his sensitive nose.

Here’s another photo, from Guinness World Records, of Harbor’s extra long ears:

Compare Harbor to this photo of a typical black and tan coonhound (from the online dog encyclopedia, dogsindepth.com):

To put Harbor’s earspan into perspective, an article in The Daily Mail conveniently reports that

According to Guinness World Records 2012, Harbor’s ear-span is greater than the height of the world’s shortest man, Junrey Balawing, who is 23.5 inches tall.

His ears are also wider than the smallest road-legal car, which is 26 inches wide, and you could comfortably fit the world’s shortest dog, 6 inch long Brandy, who is also from the US, on each of Harbor’s ears twice.

What? Of course I had to check out the world’s shortest dog as well.  From another Daily Mail article featuring Brandy:

According to her family:

“I have taken her to Seattle, Chicago, New York, Nevada – when we are on the plane, I just take her out and place her underneath my seat. No-one has any idea she is there.”

No wonder – she’s barely bigger than a can of soda!

For more on Harbor, Brandy, and other world-record breaking humans and animals, check out the Guinness World Records website.  For instance, have you ever wondered what “accessories” you might use to to encourage “the loudest purr by a domestic cat”?  Turns out you might want to start with ham . . .