ohmidog!

In Colorado, victims and witnesses who might, for various reasons, have trouble sharing details of a crime with a police officer now have another option — Pella, a Labrador-golden retriever mix who is both kid-friendly and judgment-free.

Pella began her service with the Aurora Police Department this summer, and while she doesn’t track down criminals, the hope is she can help put them behind bars.

Her main role is to work with children and developmentally-disabled adults during the beginnings of  investigations, providing some comfort and emotional support when they are interviewed by authorities.

“It’s hard for anyone regardless of their state in life, their age, their background, their ethnicity … to talk to police. It’s just an uncomfortable situation. Pella can just help that anxiety to lessen a bit,” Amber Urban, who’s behind the program, told 9 News in Denver.

Urban was working as a school-resource officer when she started pondering how dogs — outside of tracking suspects and detecting drugs — could help the legal system.

Through Paws Assisting the Legal System, she brought Pella to the Aurora Police Department to work with its Crimes Against Children Unit.

The program is similar to the Courthouse Dogs program that is already in place in other cities.

Pella works a lot at SungateKids, a center where forensic interviewers talk to kids and adults who have either witnessed a crime or been victims of one.

“They’re here to talk about things that are traumatic. They, depending on their age, may not have that recognition of it being traumatic, but they feel it,” Urban said.

Children often pet Pella and hold on to her leash while they’re talking.

“…It’s a little bit better of a connection for a lot of kids to be able to interact with the dog who has no judgment, no opinion. The kids see that and they’re like, ‘Wow, they just like me.’”

Here’s a story with a happy ending and then some.

The residents of a group home for developmentally disabled adults in Belleville, Ill., were distraught when their adopted dog Gigi disappeared over the Christmas holiday.

Gigi had been rescued from the flooded Mississippi River in southeastern Missouri this summer and adopted from a humane society by residents of the group home.

The arrangement was working out well for all, according to Trudy Baxter, director of programs and services for the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Southern Illinois.

“We are one of just a couple of agencies that actually have a pet for the individuals with disabilities who live in our homes,” she said. “Gigi has been a wonderful pet. The residents have participated in petting her, bathing her and walking her. She has been a big part of the successful program.”

But according to the Belleville News Democrat, Gigi slipped outside and disappeared over Christmas. Despite a search of the neighborhood, and a $50 reward, no one could find her.

Hearing about what happened, a couple in Florissant, Mo., offered to donate their dog, Lily, a beagle mix who suffers from seizures, to the group home.

But then Gigi was found and returned safely, the News Democrat reported yesterday.

The couple plans to follow through with the donation, anyway, and give Lily to another group home operated by the Epilepsy Foundation of Greater Southern Illinois.