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The San Diego Padres may be in the basement of the National League West, but they set a record this week.

Guinness World Record officials were at PETCO Park’s annual “Dog Days of Summer” event to pronounce it official: The 337 costume-clad dogs is now the record for most dogs in a pet costume parade.

The annual infield costume parade was lead by Tillman, the world famous skateboarding dog. The record setting took place during the Wednesday, before the Padres played the Arizona Diamondbacks.

“It has been an amazing record attempt and I’m happy to say it was successful,” said Freddie Hoff, adjudicator for Guinness World Records. “The 337 dogs in the costume parade was way above the set amount and on behalf of Guinness World Records, I’d like to say congratulations.”

The roomate of Andrew David Thompson, the former medical student accused of killing 13 Italian greyhounds, said Thompson told her the first one “kind of strangled itself in its sleep.”

When the next two died — both, like the first, also named Kensington —  Chelsea Grimes says she became suspicious.

Grimes testified today during a preliminary hearing in East Lansing, one of two jurisdictions in which Thompson faces charges of killing a series of Italian greyhounds.

Grimes said Thompson, 24, sent her a cell phone photo of the first Kensington, but that by the time she moved in, on Labor Day of last year, the dog was gone.

Thompson, she testified, said he’d wrapped the dog in a blanket before going to sleep. “He said the dog had kind of strangled itself it its sleep.”

Grimes, a veterinary medicine student at Michigan State University, said she found the first death peculiar, the Lansing State Journal reported today. When two more Italian greyhound puppies disappeared that month under unusual circumstances, she grew more suspicious, and at one point searched his room.

In earlier testimony (see the video below), Ingham County Animal Control Deputy Jodi LeBombard testified, Thompson, said he killed the first puppy by slamming it against the wall. He said he was angry because the dog had urinated in his bedroom.

Thompson, who has been suspended by Michgan State University, was ordered to stand trial on charges he killed or tortured three Italian greyhound puppies in East Lansing. He faces up to four years in prison if convicted of those charges.

He is charged with killing ten more dogs in Mason, while living in a different apartment. A preliminary hearing in that case is set for next week.

More than 20 Connecticut state legislators have asked a judge not to show leniency in the case of a New Haven man charged with stabbing a young pit bull mix 29 times.

The legislators, led by state Rep. Diana Urban, of North Stonington, voiced their concerns in a letter to the judge who is presiding over the case of Alexander Bernard, 24.

Bernard told police he stabbed the eight-month-old dog, named Princess, because “no one in the family liked her,” according to Patch.com.

Princess is recovering from her injuries at North Haven Animal Hospital and is expected to be put up for adoption when the criminal case conludes.

Bernard was charged with one misdemeanor count of animal cruelty, which is punishable with up to a year in jail. A felony animal cruelty charge carries a maximum punishment of five years in prison and a $5,000 fine in Connecticut.

“What Mr. Bernard did to this innocent young dog shows a shocking lack of empathy and a shocking and inappropriate level of violence,” the legislators wrote. “This adult didn’t steal a pack of gum from the grocery store, he stabbed a living, breathing creature capable of feeling pain 29 times like it was a natural thing to do.

“Clearly this individual in incapable of making rational decisions and shows a dangerous lack of civility and remorse. If Alexander Bernard could ruthlessly stab the family pet, imagine what he might be capable of in the years to come should his behavior go unpunished and untreated.”

“It is time we took animal cruelty seriously and approach it as an opportunity to interrupt the cycle of violence,” the letter added. “The sheer violence of his attack is enormously worrisome and the fact that the court doesn’t appear to take what he did seriously is also distressing.

Judge Philip Scarpellino said in court last week that he believed the letter could be interpreted as “intimidation” towards him. “I am upset by the letter but not influenced by it, ” he said. The judge postponed taking action on the case.

Ever since his owner died, Kirby has been running away.

He has been passed from home to home because of that bad habit.

Recently, it was discovered where Kirby might have been going — the gravesite of his former owner, Sharon Rattery.

“There’s no other way to explain it really, he’s just sad and lonely and misses his mom,” said Dave Wills, Rattery’s grandson.

Sharon Rattery inherited the dog from her daughter, Susan, who passed away just two weeks after bringing him home in 2003, according to this NBC report.

She was said to spoil Kirby, and her other dogs, too. They were at her side when she passed away in April.

“She’s had him since he was a little puppy so it’s got to be pretty hard on him,” Wills said of Kirby. “He hasn’t been the same since my grandma died,” Wills said.

At Kirby’s latest home, he recently escaped again — and was found to have wandered several miles to the graveyard where Sharon and her daughter Susan are buried side by side, and where Kirby had attended both funerals.

“I’ve never seen a pet come up to visit a grave, just people,” said Matthew Cadaret, who works as the grounds foreman at the Atascadero Cemetery and found the dog.

Sharon’s grandson said they are trying to find Kirby a new home, preferably with a senior.

A Maryland dog is going to be featured on ABC News tonight, and rightly so — he has raised $17,000 for cancer research.

Dozer, a Goldendoodle, was the only pup left in the litter when his new family adopted him in 2008 –  “the dog no one wanted … but he’s got a great heart,” said his owner, Rosana Dorsett.

Three years later, he was participating in the Maryland Half Marathon, a 13-mile race for cancer research — by accident.  Dozer escaped from the electric fence surrounding his yard as the marathon runners passed by and tagged along for the rest of  the race, with people snapping his picture all along.

Unlike the human contestants, running for pledges, three-year-old Dozer’s fund-raising began after the race, according to World News With Diane Sawyer.

Back home, his owner put together a Facebook page  in his name to raise money for cancer research at the University of Maryland’s Greenebaum Cancer Center. Donations came pouring in. He now has 2,500 friends on the social media site and has raised more than $17,000.

The Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) has received its third burned cat  case this year — a five month old kitten — and is seeking help from the community.

On Tuesday, two men saw the burning kitten as it ran by them in the 2400 block of Llewellyn Ave. in Baltimore City.

It rolled on the ground and put the fire out itself. They confined it until Animal Control arrived. The black kitten smelled strongly of smoke and is singed on both it’s back and its belly.

It will most likely lose its ears and its skin is already sloughing off. The kitten was medically treated and is now in foster care receiving on-going treatment.

BARCS is asking the public to contact 911 with any information regarding the case.

Donations to the BARCS Franky Fund, that treats sick and injured animals, are being accepted to help treat the kitten. Checks may be made payable to BARCS Franky Fund, 301 Stockholm Street Baltimore, MD, 21230. They can also be made online through PayPal at http://baltimoreanimalshelter.org.

Hope, a mixed-breed dog that seemed to be on the road to recovery after being nearly decapitated in Georgia earlier this month when her owner left her tied to a tree, has died.

She was euthanized Tuesday after encountering breathing complications.

“The good thing is she got to know that people could be nice to her, because she got a lot of love when she was in the hospital,” Pat Corley, president of Forsyth’s Save-A-Pet organization, said Wednesday.

Hope had been at Caldwell Animal Hospital since July 7, when one of the rescue organization’s members spotted her at the pound in Monroe County, a huge gash running the length of her throat.

Although Save-A-Pet planned to cover all of Hope’s medical expenses, donations were coming in from as far away as Australia, and one Forsyth attorney wrote a check for about $1,500 to cover Hope’s expenses, the Macon Telegraph reported.

Shane Smith, the Save-A-Pet volunteer who took Hope to the hospital, was checking on her everyday, and he and his wife planned to adopt her once she recovered.

“She was sweet. She did fight. We just wanted her to have a chance,” Janet Smith said. “She just made such a great effect on so many people in such a short period of time.”

(Caution: Unsettling images appear with the continuation of this story.)

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A city in Taiwan has kicked off a gold-for-poop scheme it hopes will encourage residents to clean up after their dogs.

Starting on Monday, people who take dog feces they have collected to New Taipei City sanitation units will receive a ticket for a gold-ingot raffle, the Tapei Times reports.

The raffle winners will recieve ingots worth $12,000 to $60,000.

“We believe this innovative measure will raise people’s awareness of the problem,” Chen said Chen Chao-mint, an official with the Environmental Protection Department. “Through the raffle, we expect the public to pay closer attention to environmental sanitation and play a more active role in keeping their surroundings clean.”

The rafffle results will be announced in October.

Dog feces on streets and sidewalks has become a major quality of life concern for residents, the Times reports, and the municipality has been urging dog owners to clean up after their pets.

New Taipei City will also will also offer rewards to those who take videos or photographs of people who leave their pets’ feces in the street. In addition, the city is encouraging residents to form teams to patrol their neighborhoods and educate people on the importance of cleaning up after their dogs.

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A 6-year-old Mormon girl has forgiven the shark who attacked her.

Lucy Mangum was playing on a boogie board in shallow water on July 19 when the shark approached. When she tried to swim away, the shark grabbed Lucy’s right leg and foot, leaving two deep bite marks and exposing tendons and muscle, according to WRAL-TV5, in Raleigh.

Jordan Mangum, Lucy’s mother, pulled her from the water, and her husband, an emergency room physician, wrapped Lucy’s leg in a T-shirt.

As they rushed her to the emergency room, her parents said, she asked, “Am I going to die? Am I going to walk? Am I going to have a wheelchair?”

Doctors said she is expected to make a full recovery from the injuries, including lacerations to her calf, ankle and foot, and an injury to one of her major blood vessels.

Despite that, Lucy says she forgives the shark.

“Last night, we were chatting about it and she said, ‘I don’t care that the shark bit me, I forgive him,’ ” Jordan Mangum told Ann Curry this morning during NBCs “Today” show.