ohmidog!

Meet my new hero — Raleigh, the dog. I’m thinking of taping his picture to my refrigerator.

Raleigh, through diet and exercise — and we all know that, unfortunately, is what it takes — dropped 100 pounds in just over three years.

Raleigh weighed 60 pounds when owners Jane and Jay Whitehead of Oconee County adopted the then one-year-old mixed breed at a Gwinnett County animal shelter about six years ago.

But, as the Athens Banner-Herald points out in a lovely story about Raleigh’s weight battle, he just kept growing – sideways.

By February 2006, Raleigh was a Goodyear blimp on legs, ballooning to 187 pounds.

The Whiteheads tried cutting back on Raleigh’s food, and took him to their vet, who found no disorder. Other than his weight, he was perfectly healthy.

He couldn’t walk more than a few steps at a time before he flopped over on his side, and it would take three people to get him up again, his owners said.

“It just kind of equates to people you see on TV that are so obese they can’t get out of bed. That’s what he was,” said Jane Whitehead, the chief financial officer for a Gwinnett County company. “You just don’t know what to do. He had no quality of life, but nothing seemed to help.”

In late 2005, the Whiteheads’ vet referred them to Sherry Sanderson, a professor in the University of Georgia College of Veterinary Medicine’s department of physiology and pharmacology who was beginning a study on a new weight-loss drug for dogs.”

Raleigh turned out to be ineligible for the study, but Sanderson remained interested in his case, and suggested the Whiteheads began feeding Raleigh a specially formulated dog food that is low in calories but has the nutrients dog need. It was was provided free by the Nestle Purina PetCare Co., which also helped pay for the rest of Raleigh’s therapy.

That was the other problem. Raleigh was too far gone for normal dog exercise, but Sanderson asked one of her students to set up three-times-a week sessions on an underwater treadmill in the College of Veterinary Medicine’s Small Animal Hospital. The treadmill, most often used to rehabilitate dogs after surgery, allows dogs to move their legs without putting much weight on their joints.

The treadmill and new diet worked for Raleigh, who began shedding pounds. In a few weeks, he was able to walk short distances on his own.

By January 2007, Raleigh had slimmed down to 116 pounds, and by last April, he was down to 89. His owners are aiming for a goal weight of 70 to 80 pounds.

“After seeing what he did, I don’t think there’s any case that’s truly hopeless,” Sanderson said. “I hope he can be a motivator for others.”

If you’re doing your spring de-cluttering, keep BARCS in mind.

The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter is holding its annual fund-raising yard sale this weekend, and organizers are looking for gently used items to be donated. They can be dropped off at BARCS on Thursday and Friday, June 4 and 5, from 10:30 a.m. to 6 p.m. All donations are tax-deductible.

Once you’ve done that, you’ll probably be in need of some household items. So we’d suggest a visit to the BARCS yard sale. It’s Saturday from 8 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., rain or shine, at the shelter grounds, 301 Stockholm St., behind M&T Bank Stadium. (Directions can be found on the BARCS website.)

Items for sale will include infant’s and children’s clothing, household goods, toys, sports equipment, kitchen ware, books, furniture, knick-knacks and collectibles, as well as movies and music CDs and more.

Since 2005, BARCS has operated as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. During that time, it has increased animal adoptions by more than 2,000 percent.

For more information on the BARCS Yard Sale, contact Frank Branchini (410-385-4695, Ext. 5, or at Frank.Branchini@baltimorecity.gov).

If you think your dog (or cat, or other pet) has what it takes to be calendar material, you’ve got one week left to enter a photo in the Maryland SPCA’s 2010 Pet Calendar Contest.

The SPCA has extended the deadline for pet calendar submissions to Tuesday, June 9th.

The fee for entering is $50 for the first photo and $25 for each additional photo. All types of pets can be entered.

The entry fee includes a free copy of the 2010 calendar and two complimentary tickets to the SPCA’s September Wine & Wag happy hour (where the new calendars will be available).

Additional calendars will be available for 15.90 each. All proceeds benefit the homeless and needy animals at the Maryland SPCA.

All photos entered will be featured in the calendar, with the best chosen for pet of the month, or the calendar’s cover. The SPCA recommends sending you highest quality photos.

Visit the Maryland SPCA’s website for more information, and to enter the contest online.

A National Academies report released Friday concludes that researchers have no need to deal with “random source” dealers of laboratory dogs.

Random source, or class B dealers are those that procure and sell dogs and cats from the general animal population to laboratories,  rounding up dogs and cats from animal shelters, auctions, private individuals and other “random sources.” Class A dealers are those that sell animals bred for a life in the laboratory.

The report comes in response to a request by Congress through the National Institutes of Health for an evaluation of the need to use random source dogs and cats in NIH-funded research.

The report states that “despite new enforcement guidelines and intensified inspection efforts, not all origins of (Class B) animals are or can be traced. The USDA simply cannot assure that stolen or lost pets will not enter research laboratories via the Class B dealer system.”  The U.S. Department of Agriculture licenses Class B dealers.

The findings in the report — mostly praised by both the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and the American Anti-Vivisection Society (AAVS)  — could provide momentum in Congress to eliminate Class B dealers, whose numbers have been rapidly shrinking.

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Here’s a report from Russia Today on Natasha Mikhailova – the five-year-old Siberian girl who walks on all fours, and barks, meows and eats like the dogs and cats she was raised among.

Natasha, who is only the size of a two-year-old, was removed from the unheated three-room flat she lived in with her dad and grandparents after neighbors complained to authorities.

The girl’s mother, according to the report, says she was taken away by her husband two years ago and that she hadn’t seen her since.

The father was fined for neglect, according to the report, and the girl is expected to be sent back home.