ohmidog!

A Sussex spaniel named “Stump,” who almost died five years ago, was named best in show as the 133rd annual Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show came to a close tonight.

Stump was the oldest of the seven group winners, and the oldest dog to ever receive a best in show.

The seven dogs in the final competition, selected from 2,500 dogs entered in the show, were: a standard poodle, a giant schnauzer, a Scottish deerhound, a puli, a Scottish terrier, a Brussels griffon, and Stump.

Stump almost died in 2004, but was saved by veterinarians from Texas A&M University, according to his owner, Scott  Sommer. In an short interview on USA Network, Sommer said the liver-colored dog has been off the show circuit for five years.

“He’s just been hanging out at home and being a pet and sleeping on the bed and doing whatever he wants to do,” Sommer said.

Five years ago, “he got very sick … his whole body just completely quit,” Sommer said. The dog recovered after spending 19 days in treatment at Texas A&M, he said.

(Photo courtesy of Westminster Kennel Club)

This elderly dog was found yesterday near Key Highway in Baltimore. He’s about 10 pounds, black and grey and has a crooked front right paw.

If you know who he belongs to, contact Laura at lqrobinson@gmail.com

Remember the shoplifting dog — that suspected Siberian Husky who trotted into a grocery store in Murray, Utah back before Christmas, grabbed a rawhide bone and made a clean getaway, except for being captured on the security cameras?

She’s now been identified, after being returned to the scene of the crime by her owners, who live six miles from the store.

Yes, the thieving pooch apparently traveled six miles each way to snag the bone. (Now wouldn’t that make a great advertisement for whatever company made it?)

After seeing the video, the Stirling family of Murray suspected their dog — an 11-year-old Husky named Akira — was the culprit, and drove her down to the store so that she could be positively identified.

She seemed eager to go back, the family noted.

“Yeah there’s no question. That looks exactly like the dog,” store manager Roger Adamson said. Store employees agreed, according to NBC.

When they turned her loose, she followed her nose, straight to the dog treat section.

John Stirling said he didn’t understand his dog’s incredible journey. “We’re definitely feeding her, she has boxes of treats in the cupboards.”

On the return trip to the store, the Stirlings paid for Akira’s new bone, and the one she took back in December.

Charges? None were filed, but Akira may have received a jolt when she left home, and when she returned. The Stirling’s fenceline is supposed to give her collar a electrical jolt if she tries to pass over.

Apparently, she outsmarted that device, too.

Acting on a tip passed on by the SPCA, authorities in Texas yesterday seized 22 dogs that were confined in a single station wagon, parked on the side of a road.

When officials approached the car, on an unmarked road near the police station in Pottsboro, the woman inside locked the doors and refused to come out. Pottsboro is in Grayson County, about 80 miles north of Dallas.

Inside the car were 20 adult dogs and two newborns — all appearing to be Papillons and long-hair Chihuahuas — crowded in among blankets, a pot of water and waste.  Investigators don’t know how long the dogs had been in the car, the Dallas Morning News reported.

Eventually the woman and dogs were removed from the vehicle. The animals were taken to a shelter in McKinney, according to Maura Davies, an SPCA of Texas spokesperson. The woman in the car was not charged, or identified. Officials said she was not coherent.

“We could smell ammonia from urine a few feet away from the car as we were approaching,” Davies said. “It was utterly filthy.”

SPCA staff took the dogs to the Perry Animal Care Center in McKinney, where the dogs will remain until a judge decides whether to grant custody to the owner or the SPCA.  A hearing was scheduled for next week.

(Photo courtesy of the SPCA of Texas)

Dog owners and advocates in Hawaii are rallying in protest of a proposed state law to ban pit bulls.

In the first of several protests planned on Oahu, dozens of dog owners called Sunday for state lawmakers to dismiss a bill that would ban pit bulls, the Honolulu Star-Bulletin reported.

Hundreds of Oahu residents signed a petition started by several community members at a rally at Magic Island  to protest the bill, as dozens of residents, wearing shirts that protest breed-specific legislation, lined Ala Moana Boulevard to draw awareness to their cause.

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