ohmidog!

Poor Courteney Cox.

The former “Friends” star and her daughter Coco recently moved into a new 25th floor condo with their two dogs — and taking Hopper and Harley all the way down to the ground floor and outside to go to the bathroom late at night was just too difficult.

So she bought a pooch potty to put on her balcony, and when the Cavalier King Charles spaniels didn’t use the draining patch of artificial grass, she annointed it herself to get them interested.

That, at least, is what she said to Ellen DeGeneres in an interview that aired yesterday.

“I’m like, ‘How am I going to work this out? I could walk them at 10 p.m. at night but what if they have to go in the middle of the night?’” she said.

Apparently, solutions such as hiring a dog walker, or living somewhere with a yard, didn’t occur to the “Cougar Town” star.

Once the patch was in place, the dogs showed little interest in it, she said. “… Hopper and Harley would not go. I tried and I tried and it’s getting late and I can’t leave Coco in the condo by herself while I take them out so I just thought, ‘To hell with it. I’ll mark the grass.’”

Apparently, the idea of peeing in a jar, and then going out to pour it on the balcony patch, didn’t occur to her, either. Cox told DeGeneres she squatted on the balcony.

Given the product she’s using requires a new grass pad weekly, she told Ellen she’s worried she might have to keep reannointing them. “I didn’t think it through… but I will say Hopper peed on my pee.”

We have faith that Hopper and Harley, age 9 and 10, will be able to think it through, even without Cox marking every new patch, and — whether it’s 10 p.m. at night, or 6 a.m. in the morning — adjust to using the balcony potty.

(Photos: Screen grabs from Ellen DeGeneres show)

Given the conflicting and changing accounts of a dog’s owner and his girlfriend, what killed Raider was a mystery — until police received a note left at the dog’s grave.

The couple had brought the mixed breed dog to an emergency veterinary clinic, where they initially explained Raider had fallen from their second floor balcony. But upon learning the dog was dead, the boyfriend said his girlfriend had thrown the dog off the balcony.

Police in Fishers, Indiana, meanwhile, investigating a complaint they’d received about a dispute at the residence, said they got similar conflicting reports when interviewing the boyfriend.

Detectives talked to neighbors, friends, and the veterinarian that tried to save the dog, but it was a note found later at the dog’s grave that led them to arrest the girlfriend, 28-year-old Sarah E. Rust, on animal cruelty charges last Friday. She was taken to the Hamilton County Jail.

In an interesting twist, police said they received the letter from the dog owner’s ex-girlfriend, and part owner of the dog, who found it at Raider’s grave.

Investigators say the letter was written by Rust:

“Dear Raider, First and foremost forgive me, but also forgive me and your daddy for fighting. We brought your life into our quarrel. You did not deserve to be any part of our combat. I ended your life, for which I am truly sorry my son.”

Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada has taken issue with a  report in the Brownsville Herald, later picked up by the Associated Press (and referenced in ohmidog!), that states he entered an apartment without a tenant’s approval while trying to help a great dane he thought was stranded on a second floor apartment balcony.

“Your story titled ‘Mayor Responds to Dane in Distress’ was so inaccurate, no wonder people do not want to get involved with pets or humans that are in need of our assistance,” the Texas mayor said in a letter to the newspaper that he also placed on his website.

Ahumada said that, although he called the fire department, he didn’t scale a ladder to enter the apartment — as some subsequent reports stated — but instead entered at at the tenant’s invitation. He also says the dog clearly appeared to be in need of assistance.

“Your reporter should have taken the time to speak with witnesses and the Channel 5 crew (not Channel 23 as I mistakenly reported earlier), Rita Garcia and cameraman Ricky Rodriguez, who called me to help with what appeared to be an injured dog with the owner not available to help by all accounts at the scene of a very frantic situation. We all believed the dog had a broken leg because he was frantically trying to get up but could not and appeared to be in a lot of pain (see for yourself at www.krgv.com “Dog seen dangling helplessly from second story balcony).

“When I got there, I concurred with Channel 5 and the bystanders’ assessment of the need to contact public safety to help rescue the pet that by all accounts could not get up because his whole hind leg was hanging down from the balcony and jammed between the iron balcony railing and the walkway. The pet was frantic and it was distressful.

“Your Herald article states I climbed the balcony, which I did not, but was given access to the apartment by the owner who invited me in and explained the situation that, unbeknownst to anyone watching the dog in distress, the dog was 14 years old, arthritic and on pain medication. It also became obvious that the owner of the dog was home but was totally unaware of the situation that his dog was lying in his feces and was trapped between the iron balcony and the walkway or his dog’s frantic efforts to withdraw his entire leg that was trapped and hanging from the balcony for over an hour.

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A Texas mayor’s love for dogs has once again gotten him in trouble — this time for trying to save a Great Dane he thought was in distress, stranded on an apartment building balcony.

As it turned out the Dane wasn’t in distress after all, but Mayor Pat Ahumada didn’t find that out, according to the Brownsville Herald, until after he scaled called for a fire department ladder and surprised the apartment owner in his kitchen.

Overzealous? Maybe a little. Still, it’s good — especially after reports about Don Call, the dog-shooting mayor in Kansas — to hear a tale about a mayor with compassion, as opposed to a murderous streak, when it comes to dogs.

According to an Associated Press report, Ahumada, mayor of Brownsville, alerted animal control, the fire department and police when he received a report from a local TV station about a dog apparently stranded on a second story balcony.

He then went to the location himself, the AP reported, scaled a fire department ladder and entered the apartment to help the dog.

“He looked to be stuck on the balcony,” Ahumada said. “I didn’t know the condition of the dog or if the building was abandoned … The animal’s paws were hanging out from the railing and he was struggling to get up.”

As it turned out, the 14-year-old dog was fine. According to his owner, he has little mobility, and enjoys passing the day on the balcony. “He broke into my house,” the owner, who asked not to be identified, said of the mayor. “My dog is very well taken care of. He shouldn’t have done that.”
Brownsville’s NEWSCHANNEL 5 had an entirely different take on the incident. Its website reports that a reporter and photographer spotted the dog “dangling helplessly from a second story balcony” and rushed to the rescue. After the two were not able to locate the owner, they called Brownsville Mayor Pat Ahumada for help.

The mayor’s zeal for animals has caused problems before. In 2007, the city informed Ahumada that his six dogs were twice the city’s legal limit for one home. That same year, Ahumada picked up a dog thinking it was stray and gave it to a family. When the original owner asked for the dog back and the family refused, the issue ended up in court.

Two years earlier, before he was elected mayor, Ahumada was charged with theft after taking a dog from the Brownsville Animal Shelter. He claimed the dog was not being properly cared for and the charge was dismissed.