ohmidog!

A Jack Russell terrier is worth $1.11 less, but feeling much better, after 111 pennies he gulped down were removed from his stomach.

The 13-year-old dog, named Jack, underwent a two-hour operation at BluePearl Veterinary Partners.

The coins were fished out five at a time, said Jack’s owner, Tim Kelleher, who reported that Jack was back to normal after the operation:

“He’s driving me crazy again,” he said.

Kelleher who lives in Manhattan and works on Wall Street, said Jack climbed onto a desk to reach a bag that had a bagel in it, and knocked the change over the floor. He said Jack must have swallowed the pennies while licking the bagel crumbs off the floor.

When Jack became ill and started vomiting last Friday, Kelleher took him to the vet, where an X-ray showed the pennies clustered in his belly.

Surgery was advised because the zinc in the coins posed a lethal threat to the dog’s kidneys and liver.

“If Jack would not have had the pennies removed the consequences would have been fatal,” said Dr. Amy Zalcman, who helped treat the dog.

The New York Daily News reports that the dog’s owner let the vet keep the change.

We’re not sure how big a role her dog Jack plays in helping Tisha out, or, for that matter — given her determination and what she has accomplished – if she even needs any.

But he shows up a lot — on her Facebook page, in recent news coverage about her, and in the collection of videos she has posted on YouTube about living life without arms.

On her YouTube channel, “Tisha Unarmed,” the irrepressible 25-year-old demonstrates how she texts, showers, ties her shoes, drives, gets dressed and more — even how to make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches — all without arms.

In some of them, like this compilation, Jack, her black Chihuahua, can be seen standing by — at least until she turns on the vacuum cleaner:

Tisha — born without arms, and with one of her legs eight inches longer than the other — lives alone with Jack, and we don’t know if he inspires her, or she inspires him, or if perhaps a little of both goes on.

She was born in St. Louis, the oldest of five children, and grew up all over. Her father’s family is from Jordan, and she spent a few years in the Middle East before moving back to the United States by herself when she was a teenager, according to a story about her on Yahoo! Shine.

Last year, she graduated from St. Louis Community College with an associates degree in graphic design, the field in which she’s now seeking employment.

She’s also an artist and member of  Mouth & Foot Painting Artists. She uses her toes to draw and paint.

She started making YouTube videos — demonstrating everything from how to eat with chopsticks to how to put on make-up — to showcase her graphic design skills, but now sees that she’s serving to educate a lot of people, able and disabled.

“If I can educate more people to be a little bit more open minded about disabilities and conditions, then I’ve done my job,” she says. “Not only am I educating abled people, but I’m also educating handicapped people to be more independent.”

Her her first video was titled “Eating a sandwich with my feet.” Since then, she’s added more videos and attracted more than 300,000 hits. She begins each video with the same introduction: “Hi everyone, this is Tisha Unarmed and I’m here to answer all your questions about not having arms. As you can see, I don’t have any arms.”

“I was just being silly and funny at home,” she said. “I just never expected to have so many views in so little time.”

Here’s a video sent along by Christopher Dill, who does a fine job capturing the dynamic that exists between his three dogs.

It focuses on the endearingly wide-eyed Theo, an English Toy Spaniel, and presents a typical day in the life of him and his two friends, Davida and Jack.

Davida, the largest of the trio and clearly the boss, is a terrier/poodle/schnauzer mix, left in a box at an animal shelter 15 years ago.

Petfinder.com has announced its annual ranking of the 10 most popular names for adoptable pets in 2009.

For the third year in a row, “Buddy” and “Max” came in at first and second for dogs, with “Lucy” and “Smokey” topping the list of cat names.

While many of the most common names have remained consistent year-to-year, there was one new name turning up on the list for both cats and dogs – “Bella.”

The top 10 dog names were: 1. Buddy; 2. Max; 3. Daisy; 4. Lucy; 5. Charlie; 6.  Bella; 7. Molly; 8. Jack; 9. Sadie; 10. Lady.

The top 10 cat names: 1. Lucy; 2. Smokey; 3. Midnight; 4. Bella; 5. Molly; 6. Daisy; 7. Oreo; 8. Shadow; 9. Charlie; 10. Angel.

Petfinder.com is also sharing its favorite quirky and unusual names of the year, selected from more than 170 submissions received via Facebook and Twitter.  Here are their favorites:

Shyanne Thailand Moo Goo Guy Pan, Mr. Tomfoolery Scardeycat Eliot, Rusty Buckets, KeelHaul, Too Fancy for You, Angry Donut, Maple Syrup, Hoseclamp, Prince Xavier Binxley, Hoku-ho’okele-wa’a.

“While funny names are always a big hit, we are also seeing a trend of pet parents giving their furry friends middle names, such as ‘Sunshine Ray,’ ‘Roxanna Bobanna Little’ and ‘Madison Wisconsin,’ suggesting that these animals are more like family members than family pets,” said Betsy Saul, the co-founder of Petfinder.com.

Petfinder.com is an online, searchable database of animals that need permanent homes, compiled from 12,900 animal shelters and adoption organizations across the USA, Canada and Mexico.

The police dog purchased by heavy metal rocker Ozzy Osbourne and his son, Jack, arrived in Indiana last week to spend time with his partner and start training on the streets of Muncie.

“Jack and Ozzy sure came through for the department,” Muncie Police Sgt. Jay Turner said. “The Osbourne family, they donated the money for the dog without even thinking about it, they just did it, which was very nice.”

Turner received two checks, one from Ozzy and one from Jack, each in the amount of $4,500, Muncie’s Star Press reported.

Jack Osbourne spent time in Muncie as a reserve officer during the filming of the CBS reality television series “Armed and Famous” in 2006. He has kept in touch with other officers, and convinced his father to help buy the department a police dog to replace an aging K-9 officer.

In other Ozzy Osbourne dog news, Ozzy and Sharon Osbourne last week gave daughter Kelly Osbourne a dog for her 25th birthday. Kelly Osbourne told her Twitter followers: “OK are you guys ready to see what I got for my birthday from my mum and dad? He is called Sid!”

Sid isn’t a police dog, but a black Pomeranian, who has helped Kelly cope with the stress of competing on “Dancing with the Stars,” Dogchannel.com reports.

Dave and Debbie Adams, who opened their home to Hector — the homeless, toothless, but far from  hopeless American Eskimo dog we introduced you to last week — have filed an update on how he’s adjusting to his new long-term foster home.

From all indications, Hector is getting stronger, more emotionally secure and bonding well with his new family, including Jack, the family’s Jack Russell mix. Here’s what Dave says:

Hector continues to improve. We have seen a physical improvement as far as his back legs getting stronger. When we first brought him home there was difficulty getting up on the sofa. Since then we notice he is able to jump up on his own.

There is an emotional improvement as well. He has become more at ease with the environment as well with his want to be close. Last night for instance Debbie left the bedroom and closed the door behind her and I noticed that Hector waited at the door for her to return (he’s becoming a mama’s boy).

We purchased a new doggie pillow for him to lay on. Debbie and I laid on the floor and called him over to it and he laid on it and licked my face as if to say “Thanks”. This morning we left Jack and Hector at the house and went out for breakfast …  When we returned Jack was there to greet us like he always does by jumping up and down, but then for the first time Hector jumped on me standing on his hind legs as if to say “Hi Dad”.

So far this has been a great experience for us and we are appreciative for the opportunity to put love back into Hector’s life.

Dave

It may not take a village to save a dog, but the more people that pitch in, the easier it is.

Take Hector. His headed-for-a-happy-ending story is the kind that happens thousands of times a day. At it’s simplest, it’s merely a matter of well-intentioned people communicating. But when you take a closer look, it’s amazing, and a little inspiring, how many people can get involved to save one dog.

First, in Hector’s case, came the animal control officers who swooped him up.

Found wandering at a Baltimore park, Hector — believed to be, beneath all his scraggliness, an American Eskimo dog — was taken to Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS), where staff and volunteers cared for him, gave him a name, arranged to have him neutered, and assessed his temperament and condition. The former was fine. The latter needed some work.

Hector was not just underweight. He was toothless.

He showed no other apparent injuries, but some suspect Hector, because his teeth appear to have been pulled, might have been used as a “bait dog” by dogfighters. Because the wounds in his mouth were still open, and subject to infection, Hector was taken to veterinarian Marcella Bonner, of Swan Park Animal Hospital.

She tried to repair his gums, but the holes were too big. Hector probably needs a specialist, and even then — once the holes in his gums are healed — isn’t likely to be gnawing any bones.

Hector was returned to BARCS, but, because of his medical problems and his less than stellar appearance, he was an unlikely candidate for adoption — the only alternative to which is to end up on the PTS (put to sleep) list.

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It’s time again for the most popular — and most unusual — pet names, as determined by Petfinder and its adoptions list of 145,242 dogs and 140,269 cats

For the dogs, Buddy was the number one name, and Max was number two, for the second year in a row.

The rest of the top ten, in order were: Daisy, Jack, Lucy,  Molly, Charlie, Sadie, Jake and Lucky.

For cats, the top ten names were Lucy, Molly, Oreo, Kittens, Smokey, Princess, Shadow, Tigger, Angel and Missy.

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