ohmidog!

Chevy, the dog that survived a 110-mile journey last week in the engine compartment of a Chevrolet Silverado, is up for adoption at the San Clemente/Dana Point Animal Shelter in California.

And the contractor who pulled him out of the car engine is among those interested in taking him home.

No owner has come forward to claim the 25-pound mixed breed, said Kim Cholodenko, the shelter’s general manager.

Adoption applications are available at petprojectfoundation.org or at the shelter, which plans to review all of them before making a decision.

Applicants will be asked to visit the shelter, and bring any dog they have, to ensure that Chevy’s new home is a better fit than the last place he was found hanging out — under the hood of a pick-up truck.

Jaime Magaña, a building-restoration supervisor from Chino, found the dog under his hood after driving from Chino to Orange to Camp Pendleton to San Clemente on Oct. 1. When he parked at McDonald’s and turned off the engine, he could feel movement. Stepping outside, he saw some fur and opened his hood.

Chevy, as he’s been named, was uninjured, just a little scared and thirsty.

“He’s doing great,” Cholodenko told the Orange County Register. “He’s just such a good-natured dog.”

Magaña, 52, voiced interest in adopting Chevy, but the shelter says it plans to review multiple applicants before picking a new home for Chevy, who they say is a Keeshond-Tibetan spaniel mix.

To contact the San Clemente/Dana Point Animal Shelter, call 949-492-1617.

Suzie may have survived an 11-mile ride in the grill of a Toyota Camry from Taunton to East Providence, but that Rhode Island tale now has some competition.

In California, a 25-pound dog  stowed away in the engine compartment of a Chevy Silverado, surviving a 110-mile journey from Chino to San Clemente.

“The dog is doing very well, not affected by the long ride down there,” Kim Cholodenko, general manager at the San Clemente-Dana Point Animal Shelter, told KTLA-TV.

Jaime Magaña, a 52-year-old building-restoration supervisor from Chino, said he had no idea a dog was along for the ride Monday when he took the company vehicle to San Clemente.

When he stopped there for lunch and turned off the ignition, he could still feel movement in the truck. He also saw fur protruding above the left front tire.

He opened the hood to find a dog.

“When I opened the hood he looked at me like thank you very much,” Magaña said. “I didn’t want to pull him out. … maybe something was broken.”

Magaña slowly removed the dog from the engine compartment, gave him some water and dialed 911.

Local officials are nicknaming the dog “Chevy” and are trying to locate an owner.

Here’s a Chevrolet ad I’d never seen until recent weeks.

When his master dreams he’s taking his Camaro for his spin, the dog decides to get in on the action. With no window to stick his head out of, he gets up, walks over to the edge of the bed and sticks his head in front of the fan to soak up the breeze.

It’s a simple concept, but one that — intentionally or not — seems to capture part of the essence of dog, that being their unending agreeability: “Sure, I’ll go along with that. I’ll adapt. Whatever you say. Or dream.”

All of our “Woof in Advertising” selections can be found archived here.

Remember the old Chevrolet commercial — baseball, hot dogs, apple pie and Chevrolet?

Well, decades later, the car company has, for the sake of selling motor vehicles, gotten around to acknowledging another piece of Americana — the dog; specifically, the dog in the pickup truck; more specifically, the dog in a Chevrolet pickup.

And that, they will find out as the new ad airs, if they haven’t yet, is some tricky ground.

It’s one of those topics that raises the hackles of animal welfare activists, some of whom who say under no conditions should a dog be riding in the bed of a pickup , some of whom say it’s acceptable if the dog is crated or restrained, all of whom say riding in the cab would be preferable.

And they are right. For safety’s sake, it probably would be.

Last week, in “Travels with Ace,” the continuing saga of the trip Ace and I are taking across America, we showed you Jake, a golden retriever in Oregon still sporting injuries he received when he tumbled out the back of a moving pickup. We did so without casting judgments or getting preachy, because our road trip is not about how dogs should live in America, only about how they do live in America.

In much of rural America, dogs are still dogs. They roam their property, and perhaps that of other’s, at their will. They chase and sometimes kill wildlife. Some even live, gasp, outside. And they ride in the back of pickups, which virtually all animal welfare organizations will tell you is a bad idea.

The Chevy ad, to its credit, doesn’t show any dogs in the beds of moving pickups, but, even so, I’m predicting it will lead to some lively debate if it airs widely.

On YouTube, it has already started — through Internet comments, gracious and civil as  always.

“Cute video, but I wish Chevy wouldn’t advocate the dogs in the back unless in a crate. Since I have seen a dog fly out of the back of a truck on a busy highway, I am traumatized for life. It should be illegal and is some places for your dog to ride loose in the bed of your truck unless you are on your own dirt road on your property with no other cars around and are willing to pay the vet bill if your dog falls out…”

“If I thought for a second my dog would ever jump out, he wouldn’t ride back there. And he doesn’t on the interstate. But on going into town, on rural country roads, and on my ranch, he will always ride in the back and he wouldn’ t have it any other way. MIND YOUR OWN F***ING BUSINESS FAG…”

“Greatest commercial! Too bad liberal know it all’s have created laws against dogs riding in truck beds! Apparently (like most libs) they know what’s best for us, and will make laws accordingly. My dog will ride in the back forever though, they can suck his hairy nuts…”

Besides reflecting how crass anonymous internet banter can get — how Internet commenting has replaced the punching bag as man’s default mode of venting hostilities — the discourse shows the cultural divide that exists in this country, one that’s not so much conservative versus liberal as it is rural America versus the rest.

It’s a generalization, but many denizens of rural America don’t want the rest of America making rules that govern their access to firearms, or how they raise their dogs — from whether they spay and neuter to letting them ride in the back of pickups.

There’s something to be said for letting a dog being a dog — as opposed to spending life on a leash or in a handbag – but is putting Rover in the back of a pickup letting a dog be a dog? In my view, it’s courting disaster.

Yet, while many experts also advise that dogs in cars be crated or restrained, Ace is traveling acoss the country unrestrained in the back of my Jeep.

Maybe that’s why I don’t come down harder on dogs in pickups; maybe it’s a degree of respect for rural ways; or maybe it’s because the surest way to make people become more entrenched in a bad habit is to tell them they can’t do it anymore.