ohmidog!

Soon after President-elect Obama mentioned the possibility of choosing a shelter mutt as the First Family’s dog, Patrick McDonnell, creator of the comic strip “Mutts,” jumped on the theme, coming up with six strips supporting shelter adoptions. 

“I normally stay away from politics, but this was a perfect fit,” McDonnell wrote in an e-mail message to the New York Times.

“If the Obama household adopted a mutt,” Mr. McDonnell added, “it would make a huge statement.”

“Mutts,” distributed by King Features Syndicate, appears in more than 700 newspapers worldwide and online at muttscomics.com.

McDonnell is also the author of Shelter Stories: Love. Guaranteed, a collection of more than 100 of McDonnell’s “Shelter Stories” strips, accompanied by photos of 70 rescued animals — dogs, cats, ferrets, rabbits, guinea pigs and birds.

The book also includes a reference guide with tips for adopting the right pet, and a list of useful website links. McDonnell serves on the board of directors of the Humane Society of the United States.

Jiffy the border collie mix is safe and warm and temporarily residing at a Wisconsin humane society after spending last Wednesday night frozen to the sidewalk outside his home.

The dog, 11-years-old and 70 pounds overweight, was let outside by his owner. Neighbors say she tried to get him up from the sidewalk but couldn’t, TV station WTOL reported. So she left him there.

After a concerned neighbor called police the next morning, shelter workers arrived and poured warm water over Jiffy’s back end to unstick him from the sidewalk, said Carey Payne of the Sheboygan County Humane Society.

Jiffy’s 59-year-old owner was arrested Thursday morning on suspicion of animal neglect, Sheboygan Police Lt. Tim Eirich said. The woman, who was not identified by name, told police she checked on him every few hours.

The dog’s extra weight might have kept him alive, officials at the humane society said. The dog weighs 116 pounds–70 pounds more than he should.

“I think the extra layer of fat he has kept him insulated,” Payne said. The organization has received about a half dozen calls from people who want to adopt him.

Even the New York Times, apparently, was present when a group gathered on a recent Tuesday to remember Sebastian, a city dog who made headlines when he was killed in May by stray electrical voltage from a lamppost.

“It’s important to note that this hazard impacts on everyone,” said Blair Sorrel, who hosted the benefit/memorial at Grace and St. Paul’s Lutheran Church on the Upper West Side for Sebastian’s bereaved owner, Celia Sing.

Sorrel is is the founder of Streetzaps.com, a website dedicated to raising awareness of stray voltage from fixtures such as streetlights and sidewalk metal plates.

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