ohmidog!

Shot in the face, tossed in a trash bag and tied to a fence post on the side of the road, a dog in Conroe, Texas was rescued, treated and — though he’s expected to have lasting damage — is mostly recovering.

Rescuers named him Buck — after the buckshot left in his face by a shotgun blast.

A driver spotted the bag on the side of the road Saturday on Bulldog Lane, and saw that it was moving.

Once it was was opened a bloody dog crawled out and collapsed on the ground.

When a call to animal control produced no immediate results, Tami Augustyn — known in the area for helping animals in need — was called.

Augustyn took the dog to Animal Emergency Clinic of Conroe, where it was determined he’d been shot in the face with buckshot, according to the Mongtomery County Police Reporter, which broke the story.

Dr. Ron Hendrick, a veterinarian at the clinic, said the mixed breed dog, about three years old, sustained damage to both eyes and also shows signs of  hearing loss and brain damage.

The article about Buck — and a Facebook page set up to help him — led to nearly $10,000 in donations towards Buck’s medical care.

This week, the New York Daily News picked up the story.

“Today he’s great,” Augustyn told the Daily News on Tuesday. “He’s very happy when he sees me, when he hears my voice.”

A volunteer on her way to work at a Riverside, Calif., animal shelter noticed a dog sniffing a burlap bag on the side of the road and stopped to investigate.

As she approached, the bag — tied at the top — began moving.

And when she opened it she found a cream and white- colored Chihuahua mix inside, dirty but alive.

According to the Riverside Press-Enterprise, the dog has been named Angel and is being cared for at the Mary S. Roberts Pet Adoption Center, formerly the Riverside Humane Society.

The volunteer, Debra Jordan, was on her way to work at the center when she spotted the sack, about 9 a.m. Monday, according to center spokeswoman Carrie Ridgeway.

Ridgeway said the dog is believed to be about three years old. Her ears were caked with mud and there were insect bites on her body.

“Who knows how long she’d been out there,” Ridgeway said.

After a bath and a meal, the dog seemed to be fine, she added.

Adoption Center officials reported the incident to the Riverside County Department of Animal Services.

“It’s not only heartbreaking, it’s also a crime,” Denise Perry, executive director of the adoption center said. “Pets aren’t disposable. They are living, breathing beings.”

A bloody and dirty blob of fur found in a sealed plastic trash bag in downtown Louisville this week has been cleaned up enough to reveal he is a Maltese, treated for fleas, anemia and pelvic fractures, and given the name Karma.

Authorities suspect, based on his injuries, that the 3-1/2-pound dog was thrown from a car window.

A $2,500 reward is being offered by the Humane Society of the United States for information leading to an arrest.

Wave3 News reports that the dog was dumped Tuesday at the intersection of Chestnut and Louisville streets.

A woman stopped at a traffic light heard a noise, got out of her car, ripped the bag open and found the dog inside.

Rebecca Eaves of the Shamrock Pet Foundation said the dog was “”absolutely covered in flea nests, severely anemic, parasites inside and outside, the whole nine yards.”

Dr. Scott Rizzo of Blue Pearl Veterinary Partners said Karma has pelvic fractures, likely the result of being thrown or dropped onto the concrete.

Believed to be 2-3-years old, the dog was originally thought to be a brown terrier mix, but once cleaned up he was revealed to be white.

“He’s a little Maltese and he’s white,” Dr. Rizzo said. “You never would have thought that when he came in.” He said Karma’s fractures may be able to heal without surgery.

Anyone with information is asked to call Metro Animal Services at (502) 363-6609.   

The Shamrock Foundation’s Arrow Fund (P.O. Box 24033 Louisville, KY, 40224) is collecting donations for Karma’s medical care.

A South Carolina woman called a county animal control office asking they come pick up a dog she no longer wanted.

Then she left the hound mix in a bag on the curb — for three days.

Veronica Crawford, 29,  of Florence, was arrested by Darlington County Sheriff’s deputies on June 14 and charged with ill treatment of animals, SCNow.com reported.

According to Capt. Andy Locklair of the Darlington County Sheriff Office, Crawford called the county Animal Control office on Monday, June 11, saying she had a dog she no longer wanted.

She asked that the dog be picked up, but was informed that she would have to bring it in and fill out paperwork.

Three days later, according to Locklair, Crawford called Animal Control again requesting that the dog be picked up — and noting that it had been outside her home since Monday, tied up in a bag.

Animal Control contacted the Sheriff’s Office, which sent deputies to the residence. The dehydrated dog was found with only her head protruding from a bag.

Crawford was arrested and taken to the Darlington County Detention Center.

The dog was named Belinda at the shelter, where she was being treated for dehydration and injuries from her collar having becoming embedded in her skin.

(Photo: Darlington County Animal Control)

You wouldn’t expect any sort of a happy ending to a story that involves a litter of kittens being sealed into an empty bag of Meow Mix, dumped on a country road in Iowa and run over by oncoming traffic.

But two kittens survived, thanks to a dog, according to this report that aired on NBC2.

A dog named Reagan found the bag, dragged it home and then whined until his owner opened it.

“It was gruesome, quite gruesome,” said Linda Blakely of Iowa’s Raccoon Valley Animal Sanctuary, where the cats, three months later, now reside. Their names are Tipper and Skipper.

Two or three other cats didn’t survive, but apparently Reagan the retriever was more interested in the lives that lingered than the blood and guts.

“The instinct of the dog was to nurture and not kill …With all the blood some dogs would have responded to the scent,” said Blakely. “Reagan the dog is a hero.”

The kittens were so weak they had to be fed with a bottle every two hours at first, but now, as you can see in the video, they’re looking quite healthy.

In the best of all possible worlds, I would have a poop valet.

On our walks around the neighborhood, he would follow a few steps behind Ace and me, keeping quiet, and waiting to spring into action when his services were required.

It is not picking up Ace’s poop that bothers me so much, it’s lugging the brown and bulging sack around for the rest of the walk.

The poop valet’s job would be to serve as a courier, running the bag back home to my personal garbage can — three four, five blocks away – before washing his hands, checking his pencil-thin mustache, straightening his red vest and returning to see if his services were further required, because double-doody walks, while not common, sometimes occur. (My poop valet, in my imagination, looks a lot like John Waters.)

I can’t bring myself to toss Ace’s poop in other people’s trash. That would be bad manners even if I had a tiny dog. With Ace, it would be no small deposit, taking up valuable refuse space that’s not mine, and adding a lingering scent to the recipient’s receptacle – no matter how tightly I’ve tied the bag – that is anything but lavender, pine or lemony fresh.

As I said, I can tolerate the scoopage, and the brief period of stinkiness as I tie the bag, but being new in the area – and wanting to make a positive impression upon returning to my native neighborhood – lugging an ever-present, generally full poop bag, I fear, works as a strike against me.

It seems, with everyone I have met on our walks, it has been while clutching in my hand a giant bag of poop.

It’s nothing to be ashamed of, I know. Far more shameful would be not picking it up. But still, I find myself feeling slightly embarrassed and less confident at these moments. It’s hard to have self esteem when your self is carrying a steaming bag of feces.

Normally, I would just avoid meeting people – but people are friendly here, and Ace insists upon making new acquaintances, especially if the person is a female. (And I swear I never trained or encouraged him to seek out and befriend females. He just does.)

Poop bag-toting was never a big issue for us in Baltimore, because most walks were to the park, and he would wait until there to do his business. There would always be a public trash can nearby, often overflowing with other bags of — to use the local nomenclature — dog shit.

Here in Winston-Salem, though, most of our walks are through residential areas, with no communal trash cans. Here, people don’t say shit so much. Or even poop. Or even waste. My mother, a local, gets mad when I write about the topic – even though it’s one a dog writer can’t avoid stepping in from time to time. For better or worse, people are more civil here, act more polite, follow silly but sweet old traditions and wear well-pressed clothing.

I probably should start ironing my shirts (or maybe the poop valet wouldn’t mind doing that, too).

Being a large dog (130 pounds), Ace’s output (though it was less when he was on a raw diet) is pretty massive. Picture four or five Hostess Twinkies, in a pile.

I generally use white plastic grocery store bags for the chore, they being free and abundant, if not quickly biodegradable and best for the environment. Being white, being big, being full, it’s impossible to carry them discretely.

Making matters worse, our normal walking route takes us past a restaurant on the way home, with outdoor dining. At first, I would cross the street so as not to offend diners, but they have a water bowl set out for dogs, and Ace is thirsty by then.

With a poop valet, I’d have none of these problems.

As I see it, I’d still scoop – for I am not above that. I’d still tie the bag in an attempt to keep foul odors from wafting out, for I don’t consider that beneath me, either. But then I’d snap my fingers to summon the poop valet and he’d rush to my side. I would hold out the bag. He would take it.

“Very good, sir,” he would say. Then he’d trot back to my house, holding the poop bag in front of him with a fully outstretched arm, to dispose of it before returning to take his place behind us. He’d also always carry extra bags, just in case we needed one.

With the poop valet’s assistance, unencumbered by a big translucent white bag of poop, I would cut a far more charming, more appealing figure.

With a poop valet, I would no longer find myself in this position: “Hi, I’m John, this is Ace, and this is Ace’s massive output of fecal matter – one of two loads he will likely dispense today. Would you care to get a drink sometime?”

Had I a poop valet, he could carry my social calendar as well, for I’m certain – once I stop toting poop through the neighborhood – I will make many friends who want to go out, especially if I’m wearing well-pressed shirts.

Without one, I fear becoming known as the guy who’s always walking through the neighborhood with a sack-o-you-know-what.

“Oh, Poop Bag Guy. Yeah, I’ve seen him. The one who’s always wearing a wrinkled shirt, right?”

“Yeah, that one. Have you ever seen him without poop?”

“Nope, he always has it by his side.”

Eventually people would start shouting at me from across the street: “Hey, Poop Bag Guy! Howyadoin?”

In the event some of you are taking this too seriously, let me point out that lugging his leavings is a small price to pay for having the world’s most fantastic dog. And that, though big dogs leave big droppings, the loads of joy they bring far outnumber them.

In the event you’re a company that just so happens to market a  handsome, discrete, odor killing poop bag “caddy,” let me say I wish you success, but that to me bagging, re-bagging and de-bagging just seems like too much work, and that I’m not willing to pay money to avoid being embarrassed (though we’ll happily run your paid advertisement).

In the event you want to be my poop valet, feel free to stop by and pick up an application, but be aware I can’t pay for that, either. It would me more of an internship, really — interns being used to doing the sh … stuff … nobody else wants to do.

And, of course, you’d have to provide your own red vest.

Animal control officers in Connecticut are asking for the public’s help in solving the mystery of a dead pit bull found in a trash bag hanging from a tree near a highway.

Authorities say bloody clothing, needles and syringes were also in the bag, found near a highway in the town of Orange on Saturday. It’s not clear how the dog, a 1- to 2-year-old female, died, according to the Register Citizen in Litchfield County.

The pit bull had puncture wounds on its shoulder and officials are looking into whether it was used in dogfighting rings. A necropsy is being conducted at the University of Connecticut.

The resident who found the bag called police about 12:30 p.m. Saturday. Officers took pictures of the bag in the tree and left it with the resident, who buried the dog with the bag and its other contents in his yard, Assistant Animal Control Officer Linda Schaff said.

After being called about the incident, Schaff went to pick up the dog Sunday, which is when the resident disinterred the animal and turned it over to her.

Anyone with information on the dog is asked to call the shelter at 203-389-5991.

Trooper, the pit bull found bleeding, duct taped in a bag and left for dead in a Washington D.C. dumpster in August, continues to recuperate and will soon be available for adoption.

“She’s nearing the completion of her rehabilitation and we anticipate she’ll be entering an adoption program real soon,” Scott Giacoppo of the Washington Humane Society told the Washington City Paper.

A resident of an apartment building in southeast Washington was throwing her trash into a dumpster when she found the dog, sticking her head out of a bag. The Washington Humane Society took the dog to Friendship Hospital for Animals, where she was treated.

Investigators believe Trooper was used as a “bait” animal by dogfighters.

After surgeries and treatment, Trooper left the hospital in October (when the report above appeared), for months of therapy at a facility that specializes in the emotional rehabilitation of abused animals.

The Washington Humane Society is still offering a $1500 reward for anyone who has information leading to an arrest in the case.

A Tennessee couple found more than kibble when they lugged a bag of dog food home from the pet store this week.

Within the bag’s creases was a wedding ring.

Krista Berg of Murfreesboro called the manufacturer, then the pet store, where she found the ring’s rightful owner, employee Mike Stoddard, who’d apparently lost it while stocking shelves at the Murfreesboro PetMart.

The couple returned the ring to him, according to News Channel 5.

The Friendship Hospital for Animals in Washington is hosting a fundraiser today for Trooper, the dog who was rescued from a dumpster after losing a dog fight.

The event will feature tours, games for children, face painting, raffles and more. It starts at 11 a.m. at the Friendship Hospital for Animals, 4105 Brandywine Street, NW.

The dog was found barely alive, duct taped inside a trash bag. Washington Humane Society officials said the dog had apparently been discarded after being used in a dogfight.