ohmidog!

Professional dog walkers in San Francisco would need to acquire permits, and possibly face limits on how many dogs they can walk at a time, under legislation being considered by the Board of Supervisors.

For years, city officials have been considering regulating the dog-walking industry, mainly because of concerns about people walking too many dogs and failing to adequately control or clean up after them, the San Francisco Examiner reports.

New regulations on the industry, proposed by Supervisor Scott Wiener, were heard yesterday by a committee of the Board of Supervisors.

The legislation calls for, among other things, limiting to seven the number of dogs that one dogwalker could walk at a time.

Some dog walkers say that would prohibit them from making a good living.

Under Wiener’s proposal, a permit would cost $250 for the first year and $100 a year after that. Violations of the law would result in fines of up to $500.

The full board of supervisors is expected to vote on the legislation as early as January.

The regulations would go into effect in October, 2012.

Unwanted and tossed out of her Chicago home a few days ago, Isis, an abused shepherd terrier mix, is now in demand.

The Chicago Tribune reports that at least a dozen callers have made inquiries to the city’s office of Animal Care & Control about fostering or adopting her.

The dog’s owners kicked her out Saturday because they were moving to a new apartment that didn’t allow pets.

But Isis ended up back at the family’s new apartment in East Garfield Park, two blocks away from their old one, scratching at the door.

Neighbors say the shepherd terrier mix paced the sidewalk outside of the new home, howling and barking in the cold for hours. Police said, during that time, several youths tried to beat the dog with broomsticks and baseball bats.

Police charged the dog’s owner, Lashon Johnson, who told officers she no longer wanted the dog, with misdemeanor animal cruelty.

Animal control officials said Isis did not suffer life-threatening injuries. While uncertain when she would become available for adoption, they pointed out that there are dozens of other dogs in the shelter in need of homes.

Tommasino, once a stray roaming Rome, is now the richest cat in the world.

With the death of his owner Maria Assunta, who took him in off the streets, Tommasino inherits, kind of, her $13.3 milliion fortune.

Assunta, the childless widow of a wealthy builder, initially tried to find an animal welfare association that would take care of the cat after her death, the Telegraph reports.

But none, in her view, provided adequate assurances for his future, according to her lawyer.

Instead, Assunta — 94 when she died last month — bequeathed her entire estate to Tomassino, and appointed a fellow cat lover as a trustee. The millionaire cat is now living at an undisclosed location outside Rome with that trustee, who is being identified only as “Stefania.”

Under Italian law, animals cannot inherit directly, but can be named beneficiaries once a trustee is found.

According to news reports, Assunta met Stefania in a park, and sometimes the two got their cats together for play dates. Stefania, a nurse, also went on to help take care of Assunta.

“She was very discreet and quite, I knew very little of her private life,” Stefania said.

“I promised her that I would look after the cat when she was no longer around. She wanted to be sure that (he) would be loved and cuddled.”

The Telegraph reports that only two other animals have inherited more money than Tommasino.

The world’s richest animal is believed to be Gunter, a German shepherd who was left $138 million by heiress Karlotta Liebenstien. Kalu, a chimpanzee, was the beneficiary of $61 million bequeathed by Patricia O’Neill, wife of former Australian swimming champion Frank O’Neill.

(Photo: That’s Tommasino at the bottom; Sky News)

Another hunter has been shot by his own hunting dog.

Billy E. Brown, 78, was on a hunting trip near Wesley Chapel, Florida, when his dog triggered a loaded rifle. He was shot in the thigh and remains hospitalized, in critical condition, after surgery.

Authorities said Brown and a fellow hunter were driving down a rough road in a pickup truck, with Brown’s dog, Eli, sitting between them. Eli got excited and bumped a Browning .308-caliber rifle, which discharged.

Brown is general manager and executive vice president of the Withlacoochee River Electric Cooperative.

Just over a week ago, a duck hunter in Utah was shot when his dog triggered a 12-gauge shotgun resting in his boat.

The hunting dog that a baggage handler refused to load aboard a plane in Reno because of her concerns about his health is back with his owner in Texas and doing fine, animal control officers say.

The dog’s owner, who has not been publicly identified, will not face charges, said animal control officers in Corpus Christi. Officers there checked on the dog, a pointer named Tex, and talked to his owner last week, according to the Corpus Christi Caller.

The owner told them he thought the baggage handler had over-reacted.

Lynn Jones refused to put the dog on an airplane bound for Texas on Nov. 12 because he appeared emaciated, had cuts and sores on his body and paws and seemed listless.

Her supervisor at Reno-Tahoe International Airport fired her, but her employer, Saint Louis-based Airport Terminal Services, rehired her last week after reviewing the incident.

The dog was seized and turned over to Washoe County animal control and treated by a Reno veterinarian. Four days later, Tex was shipped back to Texas, according to the Reno Gazette Journal

The Reno veterinarian who treated Tex said his wounds and weary state could have been explained by a hard day of hunting.

“I was told he was (bird) hunting near Gerlach for a week, and what I saw was consistent with a dog that has been worked very hard,” Dr. Diana Lucreer said. “These dogs get almost psychotic when they are out there working; they will run and run through anything. His paws were cut up, and he had cuts on his body.”

The dog was checked by another veterinarian upon his return to Corpus Christi.

A Chicago woman who said she “no longer wanted” her dog was charged with animal abuse over the weekend after her bleeding dog led police to her doorstep.

Police said they responded to an animal abuse call of children beating a dog with broomsticks and baseball bats.

The children fled when police arrived, and the dog, a terrier mix, walked back to the home it had been put out of, in East Garfield Park, and scratched on the door, according to Chicago Tribune.

Officers said the dog’s owner, Lashon Parks, 42, hadn’t been giving the animal water or food and had left it outside in temperatures below 25-degrees for an unidentified amount of time.

Parks told officers that she owned the dog for ten years but no longer wanted it.

She was charged with failure to comply with an animal owner’s duties and cruelty to animals, both misdemeanors.

The dog was in stable condition, according to an Animal Care & Control official.

Nancy Schutt was painting pictures of dogs.

Rich Reising and his son were writing a country song about dogs.

Like chocolate and peanut butter, they came together, Reese’s Cup style, merging their projects into the video above.

Rich, who has three Jack Russells, wrote the song, “Life Was So Much Better With You There,”  with his son Dan, much of it by exchanging emails. That’s Dan Reising performing it.

“When it was finished, I brought it to work to play for some ‘dog loving’ friends,” Rich said. “When I saw their reaction to it, I wanted other dog lovers to enjoy it.”

Rich was contemplating posting it on YouTube when he crossed paths with Nancy Schutt, who was contemplating posting a video of her artworks on YouTube.

“So we took the paintings she planned on using and arranged them in an order to go with the story of  ’Better With You There,’” Rich said.

“From the feedback we have gotten … we think we got it right — so many nice letters on how it reminds people of their lost loved ones.”

Rich reports that any profits made from the song being downloaded — from Napster, iTunes, Rhapsody, etc. — will go to Hearts United for Animals in Nebraska.

They’re called the “Pit 6,” the scarred survivors of a group of nine pit bulls seized two years ago in an animal cruelty case that appeared to have some ties to dogfighting.

This week, as the man they were taken from heads to court for sentencing, the dogs, who might otherwise have been put down, are getting close to being put up — for adoption.

Their long road to rehabilitation is documented in an excellent story that appeared in yesterday’s Baltimore Sun — one that looks at the plight of pit bulls nationwide and the surge of compassion for them, and avoids the common news media errors of identifying them as a single, stereotypical breed.

The Pit 6 — four of whom are now staying at the Baltimore Humane Society in Reisterstown — were seized in two separate visits by county animal control officials to Larry Alston’s home in the Woodlawn area.

Alston had been living in Beaufort, N.C., when animal welfare officials there seized 17 of his dogs. He managed to get some of them back, and moved them to Baltimore. Based on a tip to Baltimore County Animal Control from officials in North Carolina, county police and animal control officers paid him a visit.

They found scarred, malnourished and whimpering dogs in metal cages, filled with urine and feces and covered with tarps. They seized seven dogs, then returned in February and seized two more.

In early November 2010, Alston was arrested and booked on charges of mutilating an animal, as well as drug and weapons charges — 22 counts in all.

In August of 2011, he entered Alford pleas to the seven animal mutilation charges, and the other charges were dropped. An Alford plea is not an admission of guilt, but an acknowledgement that there is enough evidence to convict.

He faces a maximum penalty of three years in prison on each count.

During the much-delayed court case, the dogs were held at the county animal control shelter in Baldwin, where, upon their arrival, they were examined and found to have been ”severely underfed.” They ”had lots of scars of undetermined nature,” and one dog’s teeth had been painted silver.

But this spring, when local animal advocates learned about the case, they began organizing to try to save the dogs from euthanasia, the fate they feared would be ordered once Alston was convicted.

Three had died by then. Two broke through a fence at animal control and killed each other. A third was euthanized on the recommendation of a behaviorist who determined that the dog would not be able to adapt to life as a pet, according to animal control. Humane Society staff thinks the dogs were used for breeding, and as bait dogs.

In late September — with Alston’s case resolved — a group of  20 animal welfare advocates, including Marty Sitnick, associate executive director of the Humane Society, went to the county shelter to remove the dogs and take them to a private kennel in Baltimore County.

As the Sun story reports …

“That left six: five females and one male, the “Pit 6,” as they have come to be known: Michelle, Tippy, Bridget, Shelley, Meme and Meris.

“On the morning of Sept. 24, a caravan of some 20 animal welfare advocates rolled into the county shelter on Manor Road. Not knowing what to expect of the dogs, Sitnick said, they came equipped with muzzles and spray shield to ‘keep everybody safe.’

“The first dog was ‘all wiggly’ with excitement, he said, and was ‘licking faces, my face. By the time we took the third one out, it was kind of like Woodstock for pit bulls … These six dogs love people.’

Since then, four of dogs have been moved to the Baltimore Humane Society and two remain at the kennel.

Michelle will likely be the first to become available for adoption — probably in another four to six weeks, according to Sitnick.

When they do become available for adoption, it will likely be with conditions. In Michele’s case, for example, she won’t be permitted to go to a home with another dog, and will require a fenced yard.

Members of the “Pit 6″ won’t be rushed into adoptive homes, Sitnick said.

“We need to be extremely conservative in our evaluation of them,” he said. “We are going to take our time … We want to be able to point to these dogs as an example.”

I’ve never watched “Portlandia,” but I have watched some dog park behavior — of the human variety — not unlike this.

You know the type — the ones that think they, and their dog, are somehow more important than all the rest, those with newly acquired dogs, who, because they’ve read a book, or watched “quite a few DVD’s,” are experts on all things dog.

Those bossy ones, those know-it-alls, those self-righteous, sanctimonious souls who won’t share balls.

Those overbearing, over zealous, uptight ones who’d prefer it if your dog didn’t bark, or wrestle, or drool, or run, or poop.

Let me be clear — none of my friends are like this. No, not at all. But these sorts are out there. You know it. I know it. Everybody knows it. Except for them.

“Portlandia,”  IFC’s original short-based comedy series starring Fred Armisen and Carrie Brownstein, begins its second season Jan 6. It airs Fridays at 10 p.m., 9 p.m. central time.

For the third year in a row, Bella is the most popular name for dogs, according to Banfield Pet Hospital.

Banfield uses data from its 780 pet hospitals to make the determination.

It released its annual top pet name list this week, revealing a continuation of the trend of giving dogs human names.

Increasingly, it appears, humans are turning to traditional human names for their dogs — like Lucy, Molly, Sophie, Max and Charlie (all in the top 15) –  while, other sources show, they’re turning to biblical names for their children, with a few vampire names thrown in.

Bella and its variation, Isabella, appear high on both lists for top dog names and top baby names, and the folks at Banfield suspect the popularity of the vampire character in the “Twilight” series may be a factor in that.

As for humans, Babycenter.com’s list of top male baby names includes in the top 20: Noah, Caleb, Jacob, Elijah and Levi (though that last one could be in honor of the blue jean-maker or the Bible character). Liam ranked the most popular. For females, names that end with a vowel seem the hottest: In addition to Bella, Olivia, Amelia, Sophia, Ava, Emma, Aria, and Ella are all in the top 20.

Interestingly, Charlie became a less popular human name in the last year — possibly, observers say, a result of Charlie Sheen’s notorious exploits.

The name Charlie rose in popularity on the dog list, though.

We won’t ready anything into that, but you may feel free to.

Keep reading for the full list of 2011′s most popular dog and cat names. Read more »