ohmidog!

A homeless man in Kansas City says two women he thought were taking him in ended up just taking him.

And taking his dog.

Tony Pulliam said he and his dog Seven were offered shelter by two women during the hottest days of summer. In exchange he offered to paint their basement.

Eventually, though, the women kicked him out and kept his dog, later giving it to a relative.

When he objected and asked for his dog back, “they said, ‘No, you can’t have your dog,’” Pulliam  told Fox News in Kansas City.

“I want my dog back” he said. “I don’t function without my friend … I don’t even want to get up in the morning.”

Pulliam met the women while panhandling with his dog at Interstate 435 and Front Street. “They seen my dog and seen how well I was taking care of my dog. They have been helping me out ever since.”

A friend of Pulliam’s, Don Faudel, said Pulliam always took care of Seven.

“He had a raincoat for his dog in the rain,” he said. “I just don’t understand how anybody could decide that anyone is not worthy of owning their dog. He took good care of his dog.”

Faudel and others are trying to find Seven, and get him back to Pulliam.

“As the saying goes, you can’t judge a book by its cover,” said one of them, Brenda Berger. “Just because it was unconventional doesn’t mean he didn’t deserve the dog,” she said.

One anonymous donor has offered a $200 reward for the return of Seven.

Sometimes breaking the rules leads to better rules.

The Rose Brooks Center for women took in a domestic violence victim and her dog, departing from their standard no-dogs policy after hearing the details of her case — her Great Dane had saved her when she was attacked by a hammer-wielding boyfriend.

According to KCTV 5, the dog covered her with his body, absorbing most of the blows until the boyfriend threw them both out of a second story window.

Despite their injuries, the woman was able to escape with her dog, who sustained several broken bones. She eventually got in touch with the center, located in the Kansas City area.

The center offered her a bed, but when they told her pets weren’t allowed, she balked. The shelter decided, for the first time in its history, to overlook their regulations and allow the dog to stay.

That decision would go on to lead to a change in policy at the shelter.

About 40 percent of battered women with pets stay in abusive relationships  to protect or remain with their pets, said the center’s chief executive officer, Susan Miller.

“They provide so much comfort, and to have to leave that pet behind is so heartbreaking,” Miller said. “It has become abundantly clear that the incredible therapeutic benefits that pets can have on a family greatly outweigh the cost and inconvenience of housing them.”

The center is spending $140,000 to add seven kennels, a walking trail and a pet-friendly play area.

Miller, who made the decision to break the rules, credits the abused woman — who isn’t being identified — with bringing about the change.

“She was not going to leave her pet alone with him,” she said. “He saved her life.”

Shelter officials say they’ve seen a 300 percent increase in applications since becoming pet-friendly.

A 7-year-old dachshund flew first class from Florida to be reunited with her 14-year-old owner.

Abby Mason hadn’t seen the dog, named Addison, since June, when, on a visit to Florida, the dog got away from relatives and disappeared.

Addison was picked up as stray in Tampa, and Hillsborough County Animal Services identified her through a microchip.

That just left the problem of getting the dog to Missouri, but another dachshund lover stepped forward to help with that.

Crista Banks, after hearing of the dog’s plight, used her Skymiles to escort Addison on the the flight to Kansas City — and, even though dachshunds don’t really need the extra leg room, Delta upgraded them to first class.

(Photo: Keith Myers / The Kansas City Star)

Six days a week, Kate Quigley leaves her Kansas City neighborhood and ventures into those whose residents are less fortunate, meaning, often, that their dogs are, too.

In a 25-year-old pickup truck, she scouts out animal abuse and neglect — and situations verging on that — and offers food, hay, doghouses, toys, spaying and neutering and more.

Often referred to as “the dog lady” or “Miss Kate,”Quigley knocks on doors, talks to owners and drops off supplies — up until recently as a representative of  Spay & Neuter Kansas City and No More Homeless Pets KC, where, last year alone she brought in 438 cats and 562 dogs to be spayed and neutered, gave away 95 doghouses and 14,700 pounds of dog food and talked to 3,030 households.

Now she’s started her own non-profit called Chain of Hope, according to the Kansas City Star. The newspaper reports that several volunteers have switched affiliations from other groups to join Quigley, a recently divorced mother of three,  in her cause.

Chain of Hope’s mission, she says, is to break the chain of ignorance for pet owners who neglect their outside dogs, to break the chain of unwanted litters, and to persuade dog owners who leave their animals tied up to unchain them, or at least use less harmful cable tie-outs.

“I don’t get it when people tell me that a dog is for protection, but the dog is tied up on a chain at their back gate. How will a chained dog protect them?” 

(Photo by DAVID EULITT / Kansas City Star; to see the entire gallery, click here.)