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Carey Hughes, a longtime friend of ohmidog!, sent along this photo of her dog Bimini, whose attention has been drawn to something on the computer.

Look closely and maybe you can see what website Bim is so caught up in.

It leads us to wonder — how many of the 50,000 visits we’ve been getting a month are actually dogs, logging on after their humans have gone to bed?

Do they visit websites other than ohmidog!?

Do they Google their own names, or if they’re Irish setters, perhaps Doogle them?

Do they enjoy some cyberfetch? Order treats delivered? Go on Facebook and post the trivial details of their lives for all to see:

“Rex is looking out the window watching the snow fall. Can’t wait to play in it. I love snow. Rain, not so much. I’m glad I’m not a cat. OMG, I’m so hungry! And I just ate three hours ago. I think I’ll order some treats.”

Maybe that dog who ordered Xbox points via a remote control is just the tip of the iceberg, and dogs around the world are evolving to the point that they understand computers, or at least understand them as much as humans do.

Or maybe not.

In any event, they’re all welcome here.

Keep reading, Bim.

 
For some reason, even though I’m in Baltimore, I’m feeling a bit of unease about Ridgefield, Connecticut’s plan to allow deer hunting on the Ridgefield Golf Course.

True, nobody’s playing golf there in the winter — so, thankfully, we don’t have to worry about hunters getting hit with golf balls.

But given the course is a popular place for sledders, snow-shoers and cross-country skiers in the winter, the plan to allow bow-hunting seems a little ill-advised.

The managed deer hunt – designed to reduce the herd — extends only into the wooded areas, and it’s only on weekdays, and only for three weeks, and there will be signs posted at all the course’s entry points warning the public about the hunt, according to the News-Times in Danbury.

“The hunt will take place in the woods, in swampland,” said Tony Steger, the course’s superintendent. “The people who come to the course in winter are out in the middle of the fairways.”

Surely there will be no risk for those enjoying snow sports — given arrows, like golf balls, always go where they are intended.

And, if not, well … FORE!

And the new voice of Westminster is … Mario Lopez?

The USA Network — apparently attempting to squirt some youthful juice into the old show — announced yesterday that Lopez will be the new co-host of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show.

Lopez, thank goodness, isn’t replacing David Frei (that would qualify as sacrilege), but he is taking over from NBC anchor Lester Holt who has been a co-host for the past three years .

Lopez, who is actually 35 now — still young by Kennel Club standards — is host of the entertainment magazine show “Extra.”  He will join the venerable Frei, who is in his 21st consecutive year of hosting the show. The 134th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show takes place Feb. 15 and 16.

Lopez, a teen star on “Saved by the Bell,” gained further fame on the third season of ABC’s hit “Dancing with the Stars,” which led to his Broadway debut in the musical “A Chorus Line” — all, clearly, qualifying him to host the foremost dog show in the world and the second longest continuously held sporting event in the United States.

USA officials did not say why the change is being made but Holt apparently will be involved with NBC’s coverage of the Winter Olympics in February, the Tampa Tribune reports.

“I am really excited to be a host of the 2010 Westminster Dog Show,” says Lopez. “I’ve been doing my research and checking out some of the world’s top dog shows, so I’m well prepared on show day. I can’t wait to be a part of the Super Bowl for canines.”

Here’s a sneak preview of tonight’s “Dog Whisperer” — another episode from Australia, where Cesar Millan continues to apply his techniques to down under dogs, and their owners.

In this segment he tries to teach a Weimaraner that the mailman — or postie, as they say over there — is his friend, as is the red scooter he rides in on. The dog has already bitten two posties on red scooters

Sydney was once struck by a postie’s red scooter, and he seems to still hold a grudge — so much so that, even though Millan has stuffed dried liver into the bike, Sydney appears on the verge of biting the Dog Whisperer as this video ends.

It airs at 9 tonight on the National Geographic Channel.

E! Online is reporting that Casey Johnson’s family says they don’t plan to put down the deceased heiress’ ailing dog so that it can be buried with her.

But the dog still may be put down, and buried with her.

As we told you yesterday, celebrities Nicky Hilton and Bijou Phillips collected celebrity Casey Johnson’s dogs, Zoe and Elvis, from Johnson’s celebrity fiancee, Tila Tequila.

Tequila made a big to do over what she said were plans for Zoe — elderly and ailing — to be put down so she can be be cremated and her ashes buried with Johnson, which was apparently Johnson’s wish.

Such wishes are carried out all the time — but generally not so publicly, and not with a dog who’s alive at the time of its owner’s death.

E! Online’s Mark Malkin reports the dog may be blind and have liver problems. “She is something like 20 years old,” he quotes an unnamed family source as saying. “Sadly, she probably should have been put down a while ago. She’s suffering.”

Casey had said on numerous occasions that she would keep Zoe’s remains in an urn and have the urn buried with her, Malkin reported.

Before any decision is made, Malkin reports,  Zoe will first be examined by a vet and then by the Johnson family’s animal doctor on the East Coast.

“No one is going to ceremoniously kill the dog just so she can be with Casey,” the family source insisted. “That is not what Casey would have wanted to happen.”

An animal control officer in Mississippi has been fired amid allegations he shot more than 100 dogs he was supposed to bring to a shelter and instead dumped their bodies in a creek.

Alonzo Esco was fired by the city of Canton during an executive session Tuesday night, WAPT-TV in Jackson reported.

The investigation began when a resident attempted to adopt a dog  that Esco had picked up in her neighborhood in November.

“I called the animal rescue league to see if they would hold him for me, but they informed me that Alonzo Esco had not been there that day, nor had he been there for several months,” the resident, Debbie Young, said.

She contacted Canton police, who referred the case to Madison County District Attorney Michael Guest. Esco, however, has not been charged with any crime, and county and city officials don’t officials don’t come across in news reports as sounding too outraged. There are no felony charges for animal cruelty in Mississippi, although animal-rights activists are pushing lawmakers to change the law.

“Some of those animals may have been killed, or discarded without following the rules and procedures set forth,” Guest said. “In researching the issue, it appears the killing of a dog is a crime, but it’s a misdemeanor.”

“There are no criminal charges that have been filed or anything like that that I’m aware of,” Canton Police Chief Vicky McNeill said. “Our investigation did not call for any form of arrest.”

Maybe somebody should.

(An update)

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)