ohmidog!

My most favorite football team is now my least favorite football team: The Philadelphia Eagles have signed Michael Vick to a two-year contract.

The Philadelphia Eagles signed the disgraced quarterback — who just months ago completed his 18-month sentence for dogfighting — to a one-year deal with an option for a second year, ESPN reports.

“I think everybody deserves a second chance,” Vick said Friday, a day after signing the deal, according to the Associated Press. “We all have issues, we all deal with certain things and we all have our own set of inequities. I think as long as you are willing to come back and do it the right way and do the right things and that you’re committed, then I think you deserve it. But you only get one shot at a second chance, and I am conscious of that.”

Angry fans brought dogs and waited outside the team’s practice facility, carrying signs and banners to display their outrage.

“How could they sign Michael Vick?” said Mark Pascetta of Ridley Township. “They are supposed to be a character team. We don’t need him.”

Within hours of the announcement, Michael Vick Eagles jerseys were on sale — everywhere from the NFL’s website to that of CBS — and calls for a boycott of the Eagles were being mounted on Facebook and other websites.

Vicks will earn $1.6 million under the first year of the contract, with the second-year option worth $5.2 million. Vick can also earn an additional $3 million in incentives over the two years of the contract, ESPN reported.

The Eagles were reportedly not the first team to extend an offer to Vick. Fox Sports reported that the Cincinnati Bengals first offered Vick a two-year deal worth about $2.3 million.

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Lane DeGregory has a knack for finding good dog stories, and a style of storytelling so simple, sparse, hype-free and on target that reading one is like viewing a piece of well-conceived, no-stroke-wasted art.

Condensing one to a blog entry would be an injustice. So, at the risk of getting in trouble, here’s the whole thing, presented for dog lovers, and lovers of the written word alike …

(Photo: Yolanda Segovia and “RaeLee,” by Willie J. Allen Jr., St. Petersburg  Times)

Yolanda Segovia heard a knock on her door one morning, just before 8 a.m.

Her neighbor was on the porch, with a dog and a story.

Stacey Savige had found the little dog in front of an elementary school. He wasn’t very big, looked like some sort of terrier. Burrs clung to his belly. His honey fur was caked in mud.

He didn’t have a collar. Stacey had taken him to the vet and he didn’t have a chip, either.

Now Stacey had to go to work. Could Yolanda keep him?

Yolanda is 47. She’s a divorced mom with two boys. In recent years she has survived breast cancer and cervical cancer, lost her dark hair and eyelashes to chemo. A hairdresser, she hasn’t worked since 2006.

“You can leave the dog here,” Yolanda told Stacey. “But just for today.”

They took photos of the dog and made a FOUND flier. Stacey ran off 4,000 color copies. She and Yolanda stuffed mailboxes, put ads on Craigslist.

Yolanda took her boys to the dollar store and bought a collar, leash, ball and brown bed. Her 10-year-old, Azaiah, decided to call the dog RaeLee, pronounced “Riley.” He said he had heard it on TV. All afternoon, he walked the dog, threw the ball, laughed while the dog licked his face.

“Don’t fall in love with him,” Yolanda kept warning.

 Her elder son, Christian, 21, watched through the window. Christian has Down syndrome and an array of other ailments. He has had heart surgery, a kidney transplant. He can’t speak or bathe himself.

That night, when the boys climbed into their bunk beds, the dog dragged his new bed from Yolanda’s living room, down the long hall, into their room.

• • •

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Gibson, the tallest dog in the world, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, died after a battle with bone cancer.

Standing 42.6 inches tall, the giant Great Dane passed away last Friday in California, the Sierra Sun reported.

“The harlequin great Dane who spent time on Oprah’s couch, hugged Paris Hilton, graced the set of “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” and warmed the hearts of hundreds of Nevada County convalescent hospital patients, died Friday,” the newspaper reported in the dog’s obituary.

Born in 2002, Gibson weighed 180 pounds and measured 7 feet 1 inch when standing on his hind legs. He worked as a therapy and special needs training dog, visiting centers for the elderly and schools throughout the California area. He also served as mascot for a company that makes canine-friendly artifical turf.

Gaining world wide attention due to his huge frame he was diagnosed with bone cancer in his right front paw in April of this year; the leg was removed in May in a seven-hour operation aimed at preventing the cancer from spreading further.

After the surgery, Gibson received chemotherapy and was reported to be recovering.  Last week, though, Sandy Hall, Gibson’s owner, learned that the cancer had spread to Gibson’s lungs and spine, at which point Gibson’s doctor stated that there was no other medical treatment that would save the dog.

“X-rays showed that the cancer had spread to his spine and his lungs. Ms. Hall made the very difficult decision based on her concern and love for Gibson to have him humanely euthanized,” said Dr. Peter Walsh, Gibson’s veterinarian.

“Gibson died peacefully in the loving arms of Ms. Hall,” he said.