ohmidog!

A down-on-his-luck Florida man whose last act in life was to try to save three dogs stranded in a freeway emergency lane, was remembered Wednesday at a donated funeral where he was praised by Houstonians who never met him, and remembered by a daughter who hadn’t seen him in 20 years.

Robert “Bob” Emery, 54, was fatally struck by a motorcycle the night of Sept. 27 as he dashed onto the East Freeway to rescue three dogs stranded against the median.

Alaina Emery, a 25-year-old paralegal student, drove from Pennsylvania to attend her father’s service, the Houston Chronicle reported. About two dozen animal lovers also were there.

She placed a framed wedding photograph of her estranged parents atop Emery’s oak casket.

Emery. after a 13-hour day of clearing brush from Hurricane Ike, was preparing to turn in for the night when he heard about the dogs just yards from his motel. He was struck my a motorcycle as he ran across the freeway. Animal control officers called to the accident later rescued the dogs, and  they were returned to a senior-citizen couple that had been looking for them for days.

During the service at San Jacinto Funeral Home and Memorial Parks, the Rev. Bill Cole called Emery a hero, and sang a solo of the Prayer of St. Francis, the patron saint of animals. Flowers were placed atop a table covered with a blanket emblazoned with drawings of paw prints and bones.

Among those offering hungs to Alaina Emery were the dogs’ owners, who weren’t sure if she would be angry with them, but wanted to thank her.

“It is OK. It is OK,” Emery said quietly as she hugged them. “Take care of those dogs; take care of those dogs.”

A new $15 million hospital for military dogs in training and dogs wounded in combat opened Tuesday at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

“We act as the Walter Reed of the veterinary world,” Army Col. Bob Vogelsang, hospital director, is quoted as saying in an Associated Press article.

Lackland is also a central point for training dogs for the military. Dogs working for all branches of the military and the Transportation Safety Administration are trained at the base to find explosive devices, drugs and land mines. About 2,500 dogs are working with military units.

About 750 dogs are now in training at Lackland — double the number of dogs there before the Sept. 11 attacks, Vogelsang said.

To treat the trainees and injured working dogs, the new hospital has operating rooms, digital radiography, CT scanning equipment, an intensive care unit and rehab rooms with an underwater treadmill and exercise balls, among other features. A behavioral specialist has an office near the lobby.

Before the center opened, veterinarians treated and rehabilitated dogs in a cramped building that opened in 1968, when the military trained dogs for work in Vietnam.

“This investment made sense … and somehow, we were able to convince others,” said retired Col. Larry Carpenter, who first heard complaints about the poor facilities in 1994 and later helped to launch the project.offering a long overdue facility that gives advanced medical treatment for combat-wounded dogs.

Dogs injured in Iraq or Afghanistan get emergency medical treatment on the battlefield and are flown to Germany. If more advanced treatment is necessary, they are shipped to Lackland.

Training a military working dog takes about four months. Working dogs usually enter training at 1 1/2- to 3-years-old, and most can work until they’re about 10, at which time the military tries to adopt them out.

If you’re one of those who has made Beverly Hills Chihuahua the nation’s top box office hit in recent weeks, you may be wondering where all those Chihuahuas used in the film came from.

Likely, the movie’s makers didn’t have to look far, what with chihuahuas being the most popular breed in Los Angeles.

But five of them, it turns out, came from the farm of Rhoda Hewett in Rocheport, Missouri, which, of course, has made them instant celebrities, at least in Rocheport, Missouri.

“I’m in the middle of Missouri here and this is just so huge,”  Hewett said in an interview with TV station KRCG in mid-Missouri.

“About two years ago, I was on my way to Millersburg to get some horse feed for the horses (as opposed to horse feed for the pigs?) and I received this call on my cell phone,” said Hewett. The call was from a Hollywood dog trainer who said Disney was interested in several of her chihauhaus for the upcoming movie.

Avalanche, Hewett’s white chihauhua, ended up with a speaking role — she was one of four dogs to play the movie’s lead female, Chloe.

Another of her dogs, Rocky, and three of his sons, flew to Mexico last fall to shoot scenes.

Hewitt said fame hasn’t gone to their heads — at least not too much.

Let’s hope the same can be said of the Chihuahua whose now appeparing in the ohmidog! “O.” (See banner, and, if it’s your dog, click on it.)

More evidence that our dogs are becoming more like our children: The emergence of the “pet custody mediator” – counselors who help couples who have called it quits work out a custody arrangement for the dog.

Tails of the City, the San Francisco Chronicle’s animal blog, had an interview with one such practitioner last week, Charles Regal.

Regal’s fee is $350 for the first hour, and $150 for each additional hour. He tries to meet with the animal, but says he keeps the pet out of the room when that actual negotiations are underway.

“It’s not a good idea to have the animal present during the mediation because it can be incredibly stressful for them. But having a photograph of the pet in the room can be an effective way of keeping the discussion focused. I like to say that there are three hearts involved. Reminding my clients of this can often help to diffuse a potentially competitive situation.”

Most often, a shared custody arrangement is worked out — at least in the case of dogs. Cats, he says, aren’t so keen on being shuttled back and forth.