ohmidog!

The cairn terrier — the breed that played Toto in “The Wizard of Oz” — won’t become the official state dog of Kansas, at least not this year.

The House Standing Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources declined to hear House Bill 251, leaving its chances of passing in the current session somewhere between slim and over the rainbow.

But State Rep. Ed Trimmer, D-Winfield, who introduced the bill, said he plans on re-introducing it again next year, according to a Wichita Eagle report.

“We had great responses from kids,” Trimmer said. “And, I think this will give me a chance to go into the classrooms and visit with them, let them know this is part of the learning process and sometimes when you ask the first time, and the answer is no, you have to learn how to ask again. If it is something you want, you have to be persistent.”

PETA came out against the bill, saying it would create high demand for the breed and add to the state’s puppy mill problems.

But Brenda Moore, obedience chairwoman with the South Central Kansas Kennel Club who pushed for the proposal, says she doubt PETA’s action played any role in the bill’s apparent demise.

“I don’t think PETA made a dent in what we are doing. I just think it had more to do that this is an election year.”

She said she wants to create a petition drive and collect signatures from Kansans to present to state politicians; she also wants to raise awareness for existing state laws that have created stiffer penalties for puppy mill operations.

“Over the last six years, we have cleaned up a lot of the nasty people,” Moore said. “Most of the breeders are on the up and up. We want people to know that dog breeders are responsible people and that if we do get a state dog, we will not capitalize on it.”

PETA is objecting to proposed Kansas legislation that would make the cairn terrier the state dog, saying doing so will lead to increased demand for the breed.

And that, Peta says in a letter to the bill’s sponsor, “would worsen one of Kansas’ serious problems: its reputation as a hotbed for cruel, filthy puppy mills.”

“Naming the cairn terrier — or any breed — Kansas’ state dog would drive up demand for these dogs and entice puppy mills to churn out litter after litter of the breed, meaning fewer dogs would be adopted from your state’s animal shelters.”

The letter urges Kansas State Rep. Ed Trimmer to withdraw his proposal to make the cairn — the breed of Toto in “The Wizard of Oz” — the official state dog.

“Kansas’ animal shelters are already overcrowded—the last thing they need is a deluge of ‘Totos,’” says PETA Vice President Daphna Nachminovitch. “If Kansas is set on naming an official state dog, PETA suggests the humble, healthy, and 100 percent lovable all-American mutt.”

In Kansas some are swearin’
Cuz there’s no breed that’s bearin’
The title of state dog

To correct this error glarin’
Oh, the answer’s quite apparent
It can only be the cairn

You don’t need to be a wizard, or even have a brain, to figure this one out. If Kansas is going to name a state dog, it’s got to be the cairn terrier — Toto’s breed.

A proposal, and not the first, has been submitted to do just that, so that Kansas — in addition to its state insect, bird, reptile, grass, animal, tree and song (it’s not “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” it’s “Home on the Range”) — will have a state dog.

The man behind the curtain, in this case, is a woman, Brenda Moore of Augusta, who is described as “obedience chairwoman” with the South Central Kansas Kennel Club.

So one should probably do what she suggests.

“I’ve lived in Kansas all my life. I am a middle-aged woman and would like to say I’ve done something great for my state before I am dead and gone. I’m hoping this will go through,” she told the Wichita Eagle

Moore contacted State Rep. Ed Trimmer about proposing a bill designating the cairn terrier as the official dog breed of Kansas. Last week, that’s what he did.

A waste of time? Not in Trimmer’s view: “I realize we have very critical, critical issues at the state level. But our constituents and their issues are very important … and that’s why I introduced it for them … If we are going to have a state dog, I think that is the appropriate choice.”

Before the bill can be passed, the proposal will go to a committee – in this case, the House Standing Committee on Agriculture and Natural Resources.

The last time Kansas adopted a symbol was 2010 when, after a 3 1/2-hour debate, it declared the official state grass: little bluestem.

Trimmer hopes the state dog bill goes through the committee and passes with a quick vote. “We certainly have a lot of very important issues to deal with, especially in terms of economy,” he said. “I hope we can do this quickly, and I don’t mean for it to be a time waster.”

There was a push to name the cairn terrier the state dog in 2006, but after several thousand signatures were gathered, no elected official stepped forward as a sponsor.

At least 10 states have state dogs. You can take ohmidog’s state dog quiz here, or (though I’m not sure the obedience chairwoman would like it) go directly to the answers here.

For five straight days, Greg Wong returned to the lonely stretch of highway on Wyoming’s prairie where his wife was killed, searching not for closure but for Sammie and Maddie, the two small dogs traveling with her.

Hours after state police on May 30 called his home in Laramie, notifying him that his wife, Susan, had been killed  on Highway 487, Wong made the first two-hour trip, arriving at 2 a.m., just as a tow truck pulled the SUV his wife had been driving from a deep ravine.

Police told Wong that his wife apparently lost control of the vehicle. It rolled over three times and landed in the ravine. Police told him no dogs were found inside the vehicle, or in the area.

Wong told the Casper Star-Tribune that as soon as he got the news, it was as if he heard his wife’s voice in his head, saying “find the dogs.”

“I guess a lot of it didn’t soak in,” he said. “…You get to that point where you almost turn into a zombie. You are afraid to start thinking about it too much because emotionally you can’t handle it. I kept focusing on ‘you have to find those dogs.’ In a way, I was thinking my last connection to my wife was those dogs.”

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