ohmidog!

Despite wearing a service vest clearly marked with the words “service dog,” a German shepherd named Princess was kicked out of Georgia convenience store.

Princess, who is a service dog for Wyatt Fox, a young boy with autism and other medical problems, was booted from the QuikTrip off Interstate 75 in McDonough.

According to his mother, Cory Fox, she was getting coffee when the manager approached and said, “We have food in here and you can’t be in here.”

Ms. Fox said she explained Princess was a service dog, and pointed out the dog’s vest, but the manager kept yelling at her until she was out the door.

“I’m very open to educating people as long as they approach me the right way. I will tell you what the dog does freely. I will tell you about service dogs, but he just continued to berate us and tell us we weren’t welcome,” she told 11Alive.

A QuickTrip corporate spokesman issued the following statement, with an iffy apology:

“If QT made a mistake, we apologize. We recognize all service dogs in our stores. Our training manuals reflect this. If we must, we may go back and retrain the employee so he understands our procedure.”

Toby, an autistic girl’s dog that was reported stolen last week, was found dead Sunday night.

The body of the dog – trained to help Kelly Noland’s daughter, Alle, 9, stay safe — was dumped in the family’s yard in Moncks Corner, S.C.

“They killed our dog and dropped it off in our yard,” Kelly Noland told the Charleston Post and Courier. “He had been hit in the face with a bat. He was still warm.”

Toby, a 3-year-old black and white American bull terrier, was taken from the family’s front yard last Tuesday.

Neighborhood children waiting for the morning school bus said they saw a blond woman in a black Dodge stop, snatch the dog and drive off, according to a Berkeley County Sheriff’s Office report.

“It’s just been a nightmare. Devastating, heartbreaking,” Noland said. “We want to know why someone would target our animal and target our family and be so heartless.”

The family got Toby as a puppy. He wasn’t professionally trained to be a service dog for Alle — the family says it can’t afford one of those — but he watched after her and made sure she stayed safe, the family said.

Noland thanked those who helped look for the dog, and those who have helped since his death, including a local crematory that offered its services for free.

Noland said the family has no plans to get another dog in the near future. “It’s just too much heartache,” she said.

(Top photo: Kelly Noland holds Toby’s collar as she sits with daughter, Alle; by Grace Beahm / Charleston Post and Courier)

Some very Grinch-like behavior in Moncks Corner, S.C.: An autistic girl’s special needs dog was stolen from her family’s front yard.

Toby, described as an American bull terrier, was taken from the yard and loaded into a black Dodge Charger by a woman with blonde hair, witnesses told police.

“We can’t sleep, we can’t eat and we can’t go on until he comes home,” Kelly Noland told WCSC (Live 5) News. “It’s like having our own child gone.”

The dog has been in the family for years, and though not professionally trained as a service dog, helps Noland’s 9-year-old daughter Alle, who has autism.

“She has been extra upset, you can tell, she brings us his picture,” Noland said.

Alle’s vocabulary is limited, Noland said, and Toby lets the family know when she is upset or in danger.

“When we’re outside playing he makes sure she’s safe at all times,” Noland said. “If she has a certain cry he can tell the difference in her cries. He can tell if something bothering her.”

Berkeley County sheriff’s deputies are investigating, and the Nolands are offering a reward to anyone who returns him.

Toby was last seen wearing a spiked leather collar with the Noland’s address and phone number on it. Anyone with information is asked to call the Berkeley County Sheriff’s Department at 843-826-2920.

How low can one go? How about this: Stealing an autistic child’s therapy Chihuahua.

Betty Peltier of Antioch, Ill., pleaded guilty to just that this week in exchange for a sentence of 100 hours of community service.

She could have been sentenced to a maximum of one year in jail and fined $2,500, according to the Lake County News-Sun.

Peltier was accused of stealing  Peanut, a 3-pound Chihuahua who ran out of his family’s house while they were unloading groceries. Peanut served as a therapy dog for the son of Monica Hidalgo. Hidalgo offered a $1,000 reward for the dog’s return.

After Peliter called Hidalgo several times inquiring about the reward, Round Lake Beach police arrested her when she attempted to return the dog.

In addition to 100 hours of community service, Peltier received one year of supervision, after the successful completion of which the theft charge will not go on her record as a conviction.

Jennifer Schwenker has spoken publicly for the first time since she, her autistic twin sons and their service dog, Barkley, were bullied out of a Marietta, Ga., McDonald’s last month.

Schwenker said she was just trying to leave the restaurant when she accidentally spilled some of her drink on the off-duty manager who had ordered them out.

“I accidentally dropped the drink just trying to get out the door frantically,” she  told 11Alive News in an exclusive interview Monday.

The drink splashed on several people, including the off duty manager, who followed Schwenker outside and, out of the view of cameras, slapped her, police said.

The manager, Tiffany Denise Allen, 25, was fired and faces misdemeanor assault and battery charges.

Schwenker was having lunch with her twin 8-year-old sons, Ben and Sam, and their autism service dog, Barkley, a Labrador and bloodhound mix who was trained at “4 Paws for Ability”, of Xenia, Ohio, when the off-duty manager insisted the dog had to leave the restaurant.

“Most of the time people don’t understand about autism dogs and what they do,” Schwenker said.

She said Barkley joined their family two years ago, and helps calm her sons, as well as keep track of them.

As a result of her McDonald’s experience, Schwenker has created a web site called “Animals in Service for Children” and is using it to tell her family’s stories and those of others that may have had similar problems.

The manager of a Marietta, Ga., McDonald’s punched a mother of two autistic boys in the face after a dispute that started when the manager ordered the twin boys’ service dog, Barkley, out of the store, police said.

The boys’ mother, Jennifer Schwenker, said the incident took place on July 12 when she took the boys to the McDonald’s on Bells Ferry Road to have lunch, WSBTV reported.

The family was about to leave when Tiffany Denise Allen, an off-duty store manager, told them there were no dogs allowed, police said.

Schwenker explained that Barkley is a service dog, allowed by federal law in all public places including restaurants. Schwenker offered to provide proof of the permit for the dog, Marietta police said.

A surveillance tape from the store shows Allen following the family around the McDonald’s. When Schwenker tried to leave, she lost track of one of the boys. She threw her drink on the floor and it splashed on Allen, police said.

The tape shows Allen running after Schwenker in a rage, police said.

Allen has been charged with battery assault and disorderly conduct.

The store issued a statement saying the manager had been fired.

Milo is a boy. Chad is a dog. Together, they are an anecdote — one used to start off this New York Times story, but more importantly one that shows the tremendous, and not fully understood, therapeutic power of dogs.

As the Times recounts it, Chad, a yellow Labrador retriever, moved in with Milo and his family in Manhattan last spring. The hope was, as an autism service dog, he would protect Milo, who sometimes has tantrums or tries to run away while outside.

He did that and more, and the effects were nearly immediate.

“Within, I would say, a week, I noticed enormous changes,” Milo’s mother said of her son. “More and more changes have happened over the months as their bond has grown. He’s much calmer. He can concentrate for much longer periods of time. It’s almost like a cloud has lifted.”

Doctors noticed it as well. “He started to give me narratives in a way he never did,” one said of Milo, adding that Milo mostly talked about the dog. The changes have been so profound that doctors are considering weaning Milo from some of his medication.

While anecdotal evidence has long been piling up on how dogs benefit human health, research has been limited.

Now, the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health and Human Development, part of the National Institutes of Health, wants to take a closer look, the Times reports.

In partnership with the Waltham Center for Pet Nutrition in England (part of the Mars candy and pet food company), the child health institute is seeking proposals for research projects that “focus on the interaction between humans and animals.”

It is looking to fund studies on how dog-human interactions affect typical development and health, and whether they have therapeutic and public-health benefits.

When Mars became aware of the institutes’ interest, a public-private partnership was established, with the company committing more than $2 million. The National Institute of Nursing is also providing money.

As for Milo and Chad, you can see more of them in this CBS photo story, and you can learn more about them at their website.

(Photo: CBS News)

The fight between a Florida school district and a student with autism who wanted to bring his service dog to class is over — with no real resolution.

The Collier County School Board approved a settlement last week that will pay William and Brenda Hughes $125,000 to settle a lawsuit brought forward on behalf of their son, Derek.

The suit alleged that the district violated the Individuals With Disabilities Act, the American Disabilities Act and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.

In return for the Hughes dropping the complaint, and agreeing not to enroll their son in Collier County’s schools again, the district forked over the money and admitted no wrongdoing.

Hughes and his wife pulled their autistic son, Derek, from Collier public schools several years ago. He now attends school in Chester County, Pennsylvania, according to NaplesNews.com

The family had argued that the school district was negligent by not allowing the Pine Ridge Middle School student to bring his service dog to school.

An autistic student’s right to bring his service dog to school was upheld by an Illinois appeals court last week.

The appeals court upheld a Monroe County court ruling that permitted Carter Kalbfleisch to bring his autism service dog, Corbin, to school. The Columbia School District had appealed the lower court decision.

Instead of following the lower court’s ruling, the district decided it could not meet Carter’s educational needs and sent him to the Illinois Center for Autism, agreeing to pay for his education there, but refusing to pay the cost of trasnporting Carter and the dog to school, according to the Belleville News-Democrat in Illinois.

 ”We’re happy that it went our way,” said Chris Kalbfleisch, Carter’s father. “Hopefully the school will change their direction with this. … Hopefully we can move forward and get our son back in school.”

“We hope they come to the realization that the law is the law and they have to follow it,” said Kalbfleisch’s attorney, Clay St. Clair. “Just because you don’t like a law doesn’t mean you don’t have to follow the law. We hope they do what they are supposed to do.”

School and district officials argued the dog would be disruptive, and possibly cause allergic reactions in other students.

The school district has the option of accepting the appellate court’s decision, or appealing the case to the Illinois Supreme Court.

When a Maltese-poodle mix named Mindy was found after being lost for 100 days in the woods of northwest Massachusetts, she was infested with fleas, her weight had dropped to three pounds, and her fur was so matted over her face that she couldn’t see, which explained why she was running around in circles.

She was “effectively blind,” said Martha King-Devine, of the Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society. “She was just skin and bones when they brought her into the shelter.”

Mindy was lost during a family trip in August, surviving more than three months among the owls, foxes, coyotes and bears who dwell in the woods, the Mansfield News Journal reports.

Mindy had disappeared when Kathy and John Dunbar stopped at a rest area on their way to Maine to visit a terminally ill relative. “I thought he put her in and he thought I put her in,” Dunbar said.

Back on the road, they realized Mindy was missing, and retraced their route, spending six hours trying to find her. They also dropped off business cards at shops and police stations, and filed a report with the Dakin Pioneer Valley Humane Society — all, it seemed, to no avail.

On Nov. 13, though, Mindy was found by Tye Carlson, a boy with autism, about 30 miles from the rest area. Tye and his father took her to a local veterinarian, then took her home, where Tye — normally fearful of dogs, according to his mother – became fast friends with Mindy.

The Carlsons were more than happy to keep Mindy, but when they learned — through the humane society — that she had been reported missing three months earlier, Carlson and her son knew that they had to give Mindy back to her owners.

Mindy is back home with the Dunbars now.

Mrs. Carlson, meanwhile, said she is “definitely thinking” about getting a dog for her son now.

Here’s hoping he gets a great one.