ohmidog!

Residents of Waveland, a small town in southern Indiana, say shoes they leave outside are disappearing, and a stray dog is the suspected culprit.

The rash of shoe thefts begain in June, and acting town marshal Rob Kiger and others report they have seen the stray brown and white dog — possibly a beagle — carrying a shoe in its mouth around town. (Sounds like pretty circumstantial evidence to me.) Others have seen the dog lying in the sun near the fire station. The shoes, after they disappear, often turn up around the town’s fire station, according to an Associated Press report. Susie Calvert, who works near the fire station, said she finds shoes and places them on a ledge of the building, hoping that the owners will collect them.

Kiger said he’s tried to take the dog into custody, but it runs away every time he gets close.

Fewer than 500 people live in Waveland — hardly enough for a ”rash” of anything — and why they leave their shoes outside was not explained.

Criminal charges were dismissed Monday against a Seattle area woman who registered her dog to vote, according to the Seattle Times.

Jane Balogh, 67, a grandmother and Army veteran had registered her Australian shepherd-terrier mix as a voter to protest lax standards for voters to prove their identity and citizenship. She used a utility bill in the dog’s name — Duncan M. MacDonald — as identification.

A King County District Court judge dropped a misdemeanor charge of making a false or misleading statement to a public servant, based on Balogh’s completion of the terms of a plea agreement reached in September 2007.

She paid $240 in court costs and completed 10 hours of community service at the Tacoma Rescue Mission.

According to the Times, Balogh made no attempt to hide the deception, telling a number of elected officials what she had done and putting a pawprint instead of a signature on an absentee-ballot envelope.

She didn’t try to vote using the dog’s registration.

Best Friends Animal Society was among the animal welfare organizations lending a hand in shutting down the West Virginia puppy mill from which 1,000 dogs were removed over the weekend.

According to an article on its web site, the Utah-based organization had been working with the Parkersburg Humane Society since May, when the agency called for assistance in the case.

Best Friends says it also advised the Wood County prosecutor’s office in the case, and recently requested assistance from the Humane Society of the United States and other agencies to help with coordination of the operations at the local emergency shelter.

The fight against puppy mills, mass breeding operations that supply pet stores and fuel internet sales throughout the United States, is a priority initiative for Best Friends, which in the past two years led several other puppy mill busts, according to the article.

Puppy mills produce an estimated four million dogs in the U.S. each year for the pet sales market; meanwhile, an estimated six million homeless dogs and cats are killed in the U.S. each year, Best Friends points out.

The Best Friends web site also has an ongoing blog about the effort, written by one of members of the rescue team.

(Photo: Puppy at Whispering Oaks Kennels, courtesy of Best Friends)