ohmidog!

Virgin America flew 15 Chihuahuas from San Francisco to New York this week in an effort to aid the overcrowded population of Chihuahuas in California.

West Coast shelters, overwhelmed with Chihuahuas, have been looking for help from shelters on the East Coast, where there is a demand for the dogs.

Escorted by a veterinarian, the dogs were to arrive at JFK and be picked up by the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (ASPCA), which will help them find homes on the East Coast.

Virgin America’s Facebook page documented the flight, with videos and photos posted while in the air.

A dog thrown off a bridge in Lithuania. A dog dragged to death at Colorado National Monument. A dog viciously kicked in a New York elevator.

We’ve shown you all of those in recent weeks at ohmidog! — because, though they are graphic and disturbing, we believe that they need to be seen.

So now we bring you this one of Lucky and Misty, dog and cat — graphic in a way that won’t turn your stomach, graphic in a way that we could use a little more of, graphic in a way that, maybe, we humans could learn from.

Global New Year’s Resolution: Be more like Lucky and Misty.

New York City police investigating the fatal stabbing of a nine-year-old came across an unrelated crime — a small dog being repeatedly kicked in an elevator at the Grant Houses.

The assault showed up on surveillance cameras being monitored by police, leading them to arrest Chris Grant, the Manhattan man seen in the video.

Grant, 21, is seen in the footage dragging a friend’s 12-pound Pomeranian-Chihuahua mix, named Chuvi-Duvi, into the Grant Houses elevator. He kicks the dog, pets it, then kicks it again.

On his way back up the elevator, after a trip to a nearby deli, the same scene plays out again.

Police say Chuvi-Duvi didn’t suffer any broken bones in last Saturday’s attack and is recovering at Bergh Memorial Animal Hospital.

Officers from the police department’s Viper unit watched the attack from a remote location and arrested Grant two days later.

“I’m not trusting nobody with my dog,” said the pup’s owner, Melvin Rodriguez, 22, who picked the pooch up from the ASPCA.

The squad started tracking down Grant just an hour after they helped make an arrest in the fatal stabbing of 9-year-old Anthony Maldonado in the same Morningside Heights complex.

The Viper squad is responsible for monitoring surveillance cameras in city housing projects.

 
The kindness of strangers has gotten Ozzie a long way. Now the Great Pyrenees — abandoned as a pup — is ready for his next big step.

Ozzie was one of three pups abandoned by a breeder. For five months, they wandered North Carolina’s coast,  until a stranger coralled them and called Carolina Great Pyrenees Rescue.

The rescue’s president Martha Rehmeyer, of Winston-Salem, took the three brothers in.

The dogs were dirty and emaciated, didn’t trust people, and had never worn collars. They were also big — the gentle breed commonly surpasses the 100-pound mark.

Rehmeyer and other volunteers spent months training and socializing the pets and, once that was accomplished, Ozzie’s brothers, Big Um and Titan, quickly found adoptive homes.

But Ozzie didn’t, mainly because he walked funny – like a duck, Rehmeyer explained to the  Winston-Salem Journal. His back paws splayed out at 90-degree angles. X-rays showed that the knee ligaments in his back legs weren’t properly developed. Ozzie underwent surgery on his right leg, to insert a pin that would hold his knee in place, and thereby straighten out one of his paws. A few months later he had the same surgery on his left leg. He’s now staying temporarily in Greensboro with a foster mom, Susan Tanzer,  who calls him a “bionic” dog. The rescue organization is seeking a forever home for him.

Carolina Great Pyrenees Rescue charges a $250 adoption fee for each dog, an amount meant to cover the cost of spaying or neutering, as well as house training and socializing the animals for adoption.

Rehmeyer wouldn’t divulge how much Ozzie’s surgeries cost, saying that wasn’t important. “We do it for the love of the breed, for the love of the dogs.”

To learn about Ozzie and the rescue’s other dogs, visit its website.

(Photo courtesy of Carolina Great Pyrenees Rescue)

A sweet stray beagle mix found wandering in Baltimore with a tumor the size of a baseball hanging from his neck is being taken in by a Pennsylvania rescue organization.

Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS), which had been caring for the dog, sent out an email plea in hopes of finding a rescue organization to take custody of the dog, who will need surgery for the infected tumor.

All Things Pawssible in Lewiston, Pa. — living up to its name — offered to do so, and has a foster home already lined up.

They are accepting donations to help pay for the medical attention he will need.

The Petfinder website for the rescue organization is: http://www.petfinder.com/shelters/PA484.html

Here’s a revolting celebrity story — revolting, as you can see in this video, on too many levels to mention.

So we’ll just mention the biggest one. RadarOnline reports that Nicky Hilton and Bijou Phillips, both friends of Casey Johnson, the heiress found dead in her Los Angeles home Monday, arrived at Johnson’s home Wednesday to claim her dogs, including one named Zoey.

The alleged reason? So Zoey could be put to sleep and buried with her owner.

Radar quoted an unidentified source as saying the dog “is in very bad health. Casey would want the dog buried with her.”

While a spokesman for Johnson’s family vehemently denied that the dog was to be put down, Radar ‘s sources said that was the plan. We don’t know if that means it’s true, but we hope it’s not.

 As police stood by, the dogs and personal property belonging to Johnson were removed yesterday by Hilton and Phillips over the objections of Johnson’s fiance, reality TV star Tila Tequila, the New York Daily News reported.

Johnson, 30, was the daughter of  New York Jets owner Woody Johnson and an heiress to the Johnson & Johnson fortune.  She was a diabetic, and had battled alcohol and drug addiction, but the cause of her death is unknown.