ohmidog!

ohmidog! correspondent Anne Madison and her beagle Spencer received a visit over the weekend from Baltimore’s finest — and by that we mean Animal Control — after a medical emergency required Spencer’s humans to leave him home alone for longer than usual.

Anne’s human companion, Greg, after falling ill, was taken by ambulance to Hopkins Bayview. Anne road along. She returned home briefly in the late afternoon to tend to Spencer then left again for the hospital. Greg was admitted and Anne got home after dark, in the rain. It was still pouring Saturday, so Spencer missed his walk and Anne again spent much of the day af the Hospital. Saturday evening, Anne returned home with Greg, who, though warned to start charting a healthier life course, was still ticking.

On Sunday, as Anne reports on her blog, they all settled in for a lazy afternoon when there came a knock on the door…

“I’m from Animal Control,” said the courteous young woman as she showed me her badge. “And the first thing you’re going to have to do is clean up all these feces.” I cringed. Two walk-less, scoop-less, rainy days can certainly make your yard look bad in the feces department. “We’ve had a bit of a medical emergency,” I replied. “But I’ll certainly take care of it. Was…there anything else?”

Of course there was. They’d received a call from a concerned neighbor who figured we were torturing a dog in here. “Ah,” I replied. “That would be Spencer. My husband has been in the hospital for two days, and the dog’s been here all by himself  for several hours on both days. He was probably lonely and upset.”

This was an intelligent young woman, and I will love her for her next question: “What kind of dog is it?”  As soon as I got out the word “Beagle,” her official face relaxed a bit. “I always ask if it’s a Beagle. They can sound like they’re dying,” was her reply.

Spencer and his dad were duly summoned from their nap. Spencer sat courteously while she inspected his license and rabies tag. She noticed that he’s microchipped, and when she’d seen what she needed, she had a pat on the head for him and an “It’s OK, old man.” We promised to scoop the poop, and that was it.

So all’s well that ends well. Praises to Baltimore Animal Control for checking things out, and praises to the young officer for knowing about Beagles. And the Dog House Girls are now in my cell phone in case this ever happens again.

When Jane Guardascione, a 94-year-old Queens grandmother, lost her pet collie and constant companion, Angel, her granddaughter got on the phone, placing several calls to Animal Control and Care to see if the dog turned up in the city’s shelter system.

Angel wasn’t there, the agency repeatedly told her Friday.

On Saturday, though, she was told the 13-year-old dog had been euthanized at Animal Control and Care’s Manhattan shelter — the same day she arrived.

Shelter officials said Angel had collapsed at the shelter, had no identification and fit no description of any dogs reported lost. Because of her age and deteriorating condition, a veterinarian at the facility decided to euthanize Angel in an effort to prevent any additional suffering, the New York Daily News reports.

In a statement, the agency expressed ”deepest sympathies” to the family. “It is our goal to avoid euthanasia unless we deem it absolutely necessary,” the statement read.

Family members say, while Angel suffered from arthritis, she was able to get around just fine —  and was probably frozen with fear in the shelter. Jane’s daughter, Carole Miller, a collie breeder, gave her mother the dog when Angel was just over a year old. The dog was her constant companion, she said.

AC&C, which operates city shelters under a contract with the Health Department, is required to hold lost and stray animals for at least 72 hours before putting them up for adoption or euthanizing them. Exceptions are made if an animal is critically injured or gravely ill.

Outraged animal rescue groups said such mistakes are not unusual at AC&C and charged the nonprofit organization is plagued by mismanagement. In January, the Daily News reported that one rescue group sued the city because it was breaking its own law by not providing animal shelters in all five boroughs. The suit charged that facilities are overcrowded and disease-ridden and that animals are being euthanized in “unconscionable numbers” because there is no space.

Baltimore City Councilman Jim Kraft plans to introduce a bill next week to reduce the recently raised fine for leash law violations from $1,000 to $250.

Kraft was one of the sponsors of the bill that included a ten-fold increase in fines for leash law violations and failure to pick up dog waste, both of which were $100 under the old law.

In a letter to a constitutent, Kraft wrote, “On April 20, I will be introducing a bill to reduce the fine for leash violations from $1,000 to $250. As you know, this fine amount was increased during the consideration of Council Bill 08-0050, which raised fines for a number of animal-related offenses, such as animal abuse, dogfights, and failure to report possible rabies exposure.

“Among those violations for which we raised the fine to $1,000 were those that fell under the subtitle devoted to ‘General Care and Control.’ This subtitle includes failure to provide food, shelter, sufficient space, or veterinary care needed to prevent suffering. I believe that most would agree that failure to provide these most basic elements of humane care warrants a steep fine. The leash law also falls under this subtitle.

“The bill I will be introducing creates a separate penalty for the leash requirement, and assigns a fine amount of $250 to any violation of this provision. This still represents an increase from the previous fine amount of $100, because it is important that the fine serves as an adequate deterrent.

“Unfortunately, in many parks throughout our neighborhoods, unleashed dogs are the norm. It is important that responsible dog owners recognize that the potential for negative consequences of this behavior go far beyond whatever fines are imposed — it creates a threat to the well-being and safety of both passersby and the dogs themselves.”

Another sponsor of the law revising the penalites, Council Ed Reisinger, will be meeting Thursday night at Riverside Park with dog owners concerned about the new fines.

Here’s 11 full minutes of Bo video, taken when President Obama introduced the new first dog at the White House today.

Here’s the first White House photo to be released of the Obama’s new dog, Bo. It was taken March 15, during the dog’s secret preliminary visit to the White House, by Pete Souza, chief offical White House photographer.House photo office. 

While they may seem to dog owners to have come out of nowhere, the changes in the city’s animal control law that led to $1,000 fines for off-leash dogs and unscooped poop have a history.

And here it is:

Feb. 25, 2008: The revised law was introduced to the city council, with the following sponsors listed: James B. Kraft, Bill Henry, William H. Cole, IV, Robert W. Curran, Sharon Green Middleton, Edward L. Reisinger, Warren Branch.

It was then sent for review to the following committees and offices:

• The Public Safety and Health Committee, which completed its review ten months later, gave it a thumbs up.
• The City Solicitor’s office deemed it legal, which also took ten months.
• The Health Department, meanwhile, okayed it in three days. Also signing off on it were the city’s Office of Animal Control, Department of Finance and Environmental Control Board.

Dec. 2, 2008: The Public Safety and Health Committee held a public hearing on it.

Dec. 4, 2008: The revised law had its second reading before the city council and was approved.

Jan. 14, 2009: Signed by Mayor Sheila Dixon.

Feb 14, 2009 — Law went into effect.

What little official information can be found about the new law — though it’s not a shining example of clarity — can be found here.

Under the new law, the penalty for letting your dog off his leash, or not picking up dog waste is the same as the penalty for dogfighting. In fact, penalties for more serious offenses were increased far less severely than run of the mill offenses.

For instance, these penalties all went up tenfold: Not having a rabies vaccination (from $50 to $500), not having a license (from $25 to $250), animal disturbing the peace, failure to pick up dog waste, and unleashed dogs (from $100 to $1,000).

Meanwhile, the penalties for dogfighting only doubled ($500 to $1,000), the penalty for abusing an animal went from $200 to $500, and the penalty for operating an unlicensed dog facility only went up from $100 to $250.

So today in Baltimore, thanks to the city council, abusing a dog is a less serious offense — fine-wise, at least — than letting one off his leash, or not picking up his poop.

City Councilman Ed Reisinger has agreed to meet with concerned dog owners Thursday evening at Riverside Park to discuss the city’s ten-fold increase on fines for off-leash dogs and failing to pick up waste.

The law officially went into effect in February, though only this month has the city started handing out the $1,000 citations, most of them during sneak raids at city parks.

While the legislation went through all the proper channels, the city did little to notify dog owners of the increased cost of the violations before launching a series of sweeps in parks this spring. Animal control officers issue the tickets, while police stand by.

The meeting is both open, and open-air. It’s scheduled for Thursday, April 16, at 7 p.m. in the Riverside Park pavilion.

In addition to concerns that the penalties are exorbitant, some dog owners feel well-behaved dogs under voice control should be given a chance to run off leash — either in particular parts of the park, or at certain hours of the day.

Reisinger has graciously agreed to hear those concerns, and explain the rationale behind the increased penalties.

Baltimore has only one dog park, in Canton, which was built with donations and private funds. It’s the only place in the city, other than your own property, where your dog can legally be off leash.

The city plans to open its first city-funded dog park at Latrobe Park in Locust Point later this year, and Mayor Dixon has promised more, but a recent round of budget cutbacks may put their future in doubt.

A 92-year-old Washington man whose dog was stolen says he feels like he “hit the $50 million lottery” after being reunited with his Sparky.

Police believe that two youths ran off with the poodle-shih tzu mix Tuesday evening, the Washington Post reported. 

After the theft drew widespread media attention, an unidentified man familiar with the dog and his owner found Sparky on Saturday and returned him to his owner, Charles Boyd, of Columbia Heights.

“Sparky means my life to me,” Boyd told NBC news in Washington. “He’s like a child to me. I don’t have any children, so he’s my son.”

Boyd, who has had the dog for about five years, said two teens took the dog while a friend was watching him.

Aging and nursing a broken leg, Boyd said he was unable to sleep after Sparky was taken.

Police in Washington plastered the neighborhood with flyers to help Boyd find his dog, and a $1,000 reward was offered. The man did not tell Boyd who he was, but said he’d seen two kids playing with Sparky and decided he needed to get the dog back to its owner.

(Family photo)

Champ, a mutt who is a familiar face to fans of the IronPigs, a minor league baseball team, is still missing after bolting during Friday’s fireworks display at Coca-Cola Park in Allentown.

Champ belongs to Janine Kurpiel, the merchandise director of the team’s Majestic Clubhouse store, and he accompanies her to work each day. The IronPigs are a Phillies AAA affiliate.

The search has inspired many people to help, including Kurpiel’s mother, Barb, who drove all Friday night from Detroit, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported.

Ironically, the paper reports, the Phillies World Series trophy played a role in Champ’s getaway.

The gates opened several hours before Friday’s 7 p.m. game, so fans could pose for pictures with the trophy — an event that required Kurpiel’s presence. Grounds crew members offered to look after Champ in their office. But someone opened the door as the post-game fireworks began and a frightened Champ ran off.

Champ is a 4 1/2-year-old German shepherd mix, between 40 and 55 pounds. He’s brown with some black on his back, and he was wearing a purple collar. Anyone who has seen a stray dog resembling Champ in the Allentown area is asked to call Janine Kurpiel at 610-554-0474.

With its selection as First Dog triggering the most publicity the Portuguese water dog has had since its introduction into the U.S. in the late 1960s, the Portuguese Water Dog Club has issued a press release urging the public to be cautious before jumping on any trend that might develop.

“While the PWD is a wonderful family pet, we want to use the increased interest in the breed as an opportunity to educate people about it,” said Stu Freeman, President of the Portuguese Water Dog Club of America (PWDCA). “We encourage those who may consider adding a Portuguese Water Dog to their lives to do the proper research to ensure that this breed fits their lifestyle.”

“PWDs are classified as working dogs. That means they enjoy being given jobs to do where they can display their intelligence, strength and stamina. Like all dogs, PWDs need positive training and socialization.”

“The best thing about the breed is its versatility,” said Jean Hassebroek, corresponding secretary of the PWDCA. “PWDs have been full-time sheep herders, R.E.A.D. therapy dogs and we even had a FEMA hero. But, they can also be champion couch potatoes, content to just hang out.”

Because PWDs form a strong bond with their families, they don’t do well when left alone for long periods or when boarded in kennels. PWDs enjoy participating in activities with their family such as youth soccer, baseball and basketball games, picnics, hiking, and especially any outing that involves water.

They do well in homes with children, the club warned, but it’s possible a PWD could mistake a small child for a littermate and play too hard. In general, small children should never be left unsupervised with a dog of any breed.

For more information on Portuguese Water Dogs, visit the PWDCA website.

(Photo: Drawing courtesy of Portuguese Water Dog Club)