ohmidog!

Police in Baltimore shot and killed a family’s pit bull when the dog ran out of his home as police were chasing a suspect.

“He wasn’t just our dog. He was our family,” Stacey Fields said of the family’s dog, Kincaid. “It’s a horrible thing seeing your dog that you love  laying on the ground dead and bloody.”

Fields said a suspect being chased down an alley ran into their basement stairwell, with police in pursuit.

Kincaid ran out of his home during the commotion, and Baltimore police say he charged at the officers.

WJZ reported the dog was shot three times, twice in the head

“He was just barking like ‘Hey, what are doing in my yard? Who are you?’” Fields said.

“If it was a Cockapoo or a Chihuahua it probably wouldn’t have happened,” she said. “If he had pulled his mace, Kincaid would still be here.”

Mystery writer Dennis Lehane is hoping surveillance video from a nearby McDonald’s may help shed some light on his own personal whodunit — the Christmas Eve disappearance of his beagle, Tessa.

The author, who has offered to name a character in a future novel after the person who finds and returns his dog, says Tessa escaped after a visiting friend left open the gate into his Brookline yard.

Some sightings of the dogs were reported after that — the last one being at a McDonalds in Brighton. Lehane told the Boston Herald that the manager of the restaurant has agreed to review surveillance tape to see if Tessa might have been picked up or lured into a car.

“He’ll have to see a lot of videotape. I’m hopeful he will see a dog in the dark on Christmas Eve,” Lehane said. “I hope for the best, but it’s too easy to get your heart broken.”

“I’ve never had a dog this loving,” Lehane said of Tessa, who his family adopted from Beagle Rescue in Florida two months ago. ”She’s the kindest, sweetest dog.”

The author of Gone Baby Gone” and “Mystic River” said he’s been moved by all the community members who have offered help and support.

“What we’ve seen every step of the way is humbling. I’ve never seen more people help. It’s ridiculous. This is the reason I love this town.”

Having no front legs didn’t stop Kandu from getting around. And it didn’t stop him from becoming a therapy dog. Maybe it even made him a better one.

It was seven years ago that Ken Rogers and his wife Melissa, of Steamboat Springs, Colorado, saw a piece on the news about a dog missing his front legs who was in need of a home.

They adopted him, and didn’t stop there, taking in other disabled dogs and a handicapped cat.

“We tend to adopt pets with disabilities and do everything we can to try to help them,” Ken Rogers told KUSA, which reported on the amazing dog in Januray..

Now both Kandu and Lucy, who also lacks front legs, make regular visits to the Yampa Valley Medical Center, where Melissa works, to bring hope to the lives of others — as shown in the video above, by the good news website, HooplaHa,

Seeing their determination, the couple decided both dogs would make great therapy dogs.

“It shows people if this dog can do it, you can do it too,” Melissa said.

“We don’t think they’re any different than any other dog,” said Ken. Kandu proves that regularly, living up to his name.

“… Nothing’s going to stop him,” he said.

The problem with wall calendars, if you’re like me, is that you hang them on the wall and then realize, around July, that you haven’t flipped the pages since February.

The way to get around that is to buy one with artwork so irresistible you can’t help but remember to turn the page on the first of the month.

The underwater dog photography of Seth Casteel, which we told you about earlier this year — before it became a book, or calendar — fits that bill.

Casteel got intrigued with photographing dogs under water, posted some of the shots on his Facebook page and watched as they went viral. They show a side of dogs we don’t often see, and now you can give them a place of honor on your wall, or coffee table.

You can buy the calendar here.

You can buy the book here.