ohmidog!

When Greg LeNoir saw his dog Jake tugged under the water by a shark off the Florida coast, he jumped in after him, whacked the shark on the head, and eventually recovered his 28-month old rat terrier.

Jake was taking his daily swim off a pier at a marina, when LeNoir saw the shark approach.

“It took most of Jake in its mouth, and before I could react, it disappeared.”

LeNoir dove in, chased the shark, hit it on the head. ”I clenched my fists and dove straight in with all my strength, like a battering ram,” LeNoir, a 53-year-old carpenter, said.

Then he recovered the dog and swam to shore. “I swam fast,” he noted.

“Jake was sliced to ribbons and he was just standing there bawling like a baby,” LeNoir said.

Jake suffered puncture wounds to his abdomen, chest and back and lacerations on his right side and front left leg.

But after treatment, both man and dog were up and around — and in good enough shape to appear on CBS’ Early Show.

LeNoir said Jake may not be diving in again any time soon.

“He may not ever want to swim again,” he told Harry Smith. “He has nightmares … He sits up at night and cries.”

  Samson, the biggest dog in all of Britain, faces being put down because his owners can’t afford a life-saving operation on his hind leg, the British press is reporting.
      Both the Mail and the Telegraph say Samson’s owners, Julie and Ray Woods, have issued a plea for help in paying for the surgery. Unfortunately, neither news organization providing any information on how one might go about assisting.
      The Woods say Samson ruptured the cruciate ligament on his left hind leg, and that they cannot afford to pay the 1,400 pounds needed for special surgery.
      “Samson is in crisis. Without the surgery it could end up being euthanasia. It really is quite desperate. We are very upset, we love him to bits,” Julie Woods is quoted as saying.
      Samson is a four-year-old Great Dane-Newfoundland mix. He stands 6-feet, 6-inches tall on his on his hind legs. One report says Samson has a 29-inch neck, paws the size of dinner plates and can hold a full-size football in his mouth. The Woods from Wyberton, Lincolnshire, bought Samson from an RSPCA center when he was six months old.
      Up to now the animal charity PDSA has helped to pay for Samson’s vet bills, but Julie said they cannot stretch to pay for the surgery. “‘PDSA have been brilliant because it has so far cost quite a lot of money, but unfortunately they can’t pay for such expensive surgery … We are just appealing to anybody who can help.”
      Samson isn’t the world’s biggest dog — that honor belongs to mastiff named Hercules from Massachusetts.

     What manner of beast is this?
     You’ll just have to keep reading to find out, but feel free to formulate your guess as you continue.
     This is Otis, chosen as a finalist for dog of the year in a contest sponsored by Mars Veterinary, makers of the Wisdom Panel, a DNA testing kit that tells you what breeds are in your mutt.
     Determining a dog’s breeds through DNA has come a long way in the year since I swabbed inside the cheek of my dog Ace, sent the sample to the company’s lab and learned that Chow and Rottweiler were the primary breeds he’s made up of.

Not a shepherd, not an Akita — as most veterinarians guessed, but a Chotweiller. It was a tale told over five days, in the pages of the Baltimore Sun, and in an online documentary, “Hey, Mister, What Kind of Dog is That?”

Back then, the test I used cost $65, and tested for the presence of 38 breeds.

Today, most doggie DNA tests cost twice as much, use blood instead of cheek cells, and can determine which of more than 130 breeds are in your mutt.

Their usefuleness and accuracy are still debatable, but, according to a report in the Cleveland Plain-Dealer last week, the tests seem to be catching on.

In November, Petco will introduce its Canine Heritage Breed Test in Ohio stores. The test — it’s the predecessor of the one I used — has been available online and in limited markets since July, and sales have surpassed expectations, a company spokesman said.

Meanwhile, Mars Veterinary, which estimates that half the country’s 70 million dogs are mixed breed, expects a growing market for its Wisdom Panel MX test.

The companies saying knowing what’s in a mutt’s mix can help diagnose and treat medical problems that arise in its lifetime.

Critics say, while that information could prove useful, there are probably better investments for you doggie dollar — such as good food.

The Wisdom Panel test from Mars (the company, not planet) can detect 134 breeds. It’s performed by veterinarians, as drawing blood is required. About 4,000 clinics offer the test. Company officials say the test has an 84 percent accuracy rate.

Okay, back to Otis. To see what breeds turned out to be in him, click here.