ohmidog!

An insurance company told a Colorado woman whose dog was hit by a car that if two trips to the vet don’t resolve the dog’s problems, the company will considered the dog “totaled.”

In insurance industry jargon, ”totaled” means the cost to repair a vehicle exceeds the cost of replacing it.

Applying the terminology to a dog or other living thing is pretty reprehensible — leading me to question whether insurance companies are really as neighborly, caring and good humored as their cloying TV ads make them out to be.

Referring to pets as property — despite what our archaic laws say — is such a clear and simple customer relations no-no that, you’d think, even a cave man would know better. In this particular case, I’m wondering if the agent in question even attended Farmers’ University.

Marcia Pinkstaff, of Parker, Colo., told ABC7 News in Denver that Sasha, her 9-year-old lab mix, was hit while walking with her in a crosswalk by a van making a left turn.

“She didn’t see us and she hit Sasha very, very hard,” Pinkstaff said. “Sasha has tears in her lungs, a tear in her diaphragm and liver damage.”

Pinkstaff said the driver’s insurance company, Farmers’ Insurance, told her they’d pay for one or two trips to the vet and then after that the dog would be considered totaled – meaning, in this case, they wouldn’t pay any more.

“I was horrified,” Pinkstaff said. “They said they were totaling out my dog. It broke my heart because she is like a child to me.”