ohmidog!

Black dogs can be adopted for free in Wichita on this Black Friday, thanks to a girl scout in Kansas.

Madison Bell, a seventh-grader at Mayberry Middle School, recently launched the Black Dog Club after noticing — while volunteering at the Kansas Humane Society — that black dogs tend to get passed over in shelters, at least more often than their multi-colored and lighter-colored counterparts.

“Black dogs are overlooked … You can’t see their faces very well,” said Madison, 12. “When I heard about it, I was shocked. I wanted to so something to help.”

Today, Madison is helping the Humane Society host the Black Dog Adoption Drive, an event geared toward getting more black shelter animals into loving homes, according to Kansas.com. All adoption fees for black animals are being waived, while fees for other animals are being discounted 25 percent.

She’ll also be encouraging visitors to join the Black Dog Club, which she launched last month as her Girl Scout Silver Award project. It has raised about $1,300 to help provide medical services and more for the shelter’s animals. (You can find more information, donate, and get the T-shirt here.)

Most shelter directors concur that black dogs often have more trouble finding a home — their facial expressions are harder to see, and photographs of them tend to not come out as well.

“They don’t grab your eye as quickly as brighter colored animals,” said Jennifer Campbell, spokeswoman for the Kansas Humane Society.

But as Madison points out, they’re just as special. “Black dogs are amazing,” she told KAKE-TV. “They’ve got personality just like any other dog.”

(Photos: Courtesy of the Kansas Humane Society)

After eight years of living on her own in a field in Kansas, Ditch Dog has come in out of the cold.

Nobody knew where D.D., as she’s called, came from. She didn’t let people near her — not even when one of her legs got looped through her collar, and she limped around on three legs until the collar rotted. Even, then, she kept walking on three legs for another year, apparently having grown used to it.

Ditch Dog did accept the donations of food and water that residents of Buhler, week after week, year after year, provided.

But not until last month did she allow a human to get close, make friends and take her home, according to Hutchinson News reporter Kathy Hanks:

After all these years, the elusive creature …has finally come indoors to the home of Rachelle Cavanaugh, just in time for the cold weather. Cavanaugh believes D.D. was ready … “She didn’t want to live like that anymore,” Cavanaugh said.

The wiry-haired dog, who’s also missing her tail, avoided being picked up for violating Buhler’s leash laws by staying outside town limits, on the county side of the road.

Cavanaugh began trying to get close to D.D. more than a year ago. She began leaving treats with medicine to help the dog with what Cavanaugh suspected was arthritis, and put flea medicine in her food. One night, when Cavanaugh sat by the food dish, D.D. approached and let Cavanaugh touch her.

“She was starving for attention,” Cavanaugh said.

Recently, Cavanaugh was able to get D.D. to jump in her car. She drover her around town, put a leash on her and introduced her to her other three dogs before returning her to her field.

She arranged for a vet to come to the field and give D.D. shots.

And about a month ago, D.D. moved in with Cavanaugh.

“She has some wicked scars,” Cavanaugh said, and she still seems to get anxious at night, at which time she seeks out her pillow.

Cavanaugh left a sign in the field where D.D. once lived, in case people in Buhler start wondering why she’s no longer there. It reads:

“Buhler: Thank you for all the years of care and concern. I have found a home and I am adjusting. God bless you, Ditch Dog.”

(Photo: Lindsey Bauman / Hutchinson News)

No one is sure how she got there, but a legally blind 5-year-old girl’s therapy dog showed up on her family’s front porch in Kansas, two weeks after she was stolen.

According to KSN, Andrea Taylor, who has cerebral palsy, couldn’t stop smiling.

Millie, a pit bull trained to serve Andrea  as a therapy dog, was found outside the family’s home in Hutchinson by Andrea’s father around 3:30 a.m.

Andrea’s mother said her daughter woke up, came out to the living room and upon seeing her dog said, ’”There her is. It’s my Millie.”

Millie had been missing for two weeks. She was seen jumping into a white car in front of the family’s Hutchinson home.  A reward of $450 was being offered for her return. 

Andrea’s mother, Lana Taylor, believes pressure from the media and the Reno County Sheriff’s Department led whoever stole the dog to have a change of heart.

Millie had scrapes and scabs around her face, neck, and belly, leading Taylor to believe she might have been taken by dogfighters.

Hutchinson police say they are continuing to investigate the case.

Taylor said the first thing Millie did upon her return was to go to Andrea’s room: “She went right to Andrea’s bed, put her paw up on the bed, and sat there …”

A blind, five-year-old girl’s therapy dog was apparently stolen from her front yard in Hutchinson, Kansas.

Millie, a pit bull trained as a therapy dog, was given to Andrea Taylor, who also has cerebral palsy, in March.

Less than a month later, someone in a white car stopped in front of the home, called the dog, and drove away with Millie, KSN reports.

The sheriff’s department is investigating.

“She absolutely loves Millie,” said Lana Taylor, Andrea’s mother. “She has always been a good night’s sleeper. She’s not sleeping at night, she’s crying all night long.”

The dog enabled Andrea to have more independence, her mother said, but since she was taken, Andrea spends a lot of time staring out the front window.

Anyone with any information with any information about Millie’s whereabouts is asked to call the Reno County Sheriff’s Department at 620-694-2735.

The family is offering a cash reward for Millie’s return

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.”

In honor of his Shiba Inu, 12-year-old Aaron Coash is lobbying the Kansas legislature to pass a law aimed at stemming the number of dogs killed by antifreeze poisoning.

With the help of the Humane Society, he’s proposing a law that would require all antifreeze sold in in the state contain a chemical that turns its sweet taste bitter.

He’s calling it Nikko’s law, in honor of his dog, who died last month.

Antifreeze poisoning kills an estimated 10,000 animals and more than a thousand children each year, according to the Humane Society of the United States.

Aaron said for the first time in six years, Nikko didn’t greet him when he came home from school one day last month.

“The doctor said without a doubt it was antifreeze poisoning,” Aaron told Fox News in Kansas City.

Aaron said Kansas Senator Carolyn McGinn has offered to help with the cause.

“Nikko was a champion, so I want to be a champion,” he explained. You can sign a petition in support of Nikko’s law at his website

Other states that have passed similar legislation are Arizona, California, Georgia, Illinois, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Tennessee, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia and Wisconsin.

Ethylene glycol’s sweet smell and taste makes antifreeze and coolant attractive to animals and children. It costs manufacturers an estimated additional two to three cents per gallon to add the bittering agent.

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.

In a typical animal cruelty case — on those rare occasions they do get to court — you’ll see an attorney representing the people, and another representing a defendant.

But you don’t see one representing the dog.

Katie Barnett, for one, doesn’t think that’s right.

A third-year law student at Kansas University, she’s establishing an animal cruelty prosecution clinic at the school — one she says is the first of its kind.

Barnett, 30, will work with animal control, animal cruelty investigators at the Humane Society, police and prosecutors to ensure that justice is served in cases of animal abuse.

“This is the chance for me to give the animals a voice and a place in the justice system,” Barnett told the Lawrence Journal-World.

Barnett started researching how to put together the clinic two years ago, after some high-profile animal cruelty cases in Lawrence. She did ride-alongs with the police and animal cruelty investigators and followed cases through the court system.

This spring, Barnett will develop a protocol for how future students can assist in the prosecution of such cases.

“I’m doing a trial run to see how everything works,” she said. “I’m getting out all the kinks and really tailoring the position so everyone knows what to do. There’s never been a person to collect everything.”

The program will begin taking in students in the fall 2011.

Barnett was one of three law students awarded The Animal Legal Defense Fund’s (ALDF) Advancement of Animal Law Scholarships last year for their outstanding work in the growing field of animal law.

A graduate of Missouri State University, she has two pit bull mix dogs, including a three-legged rescue named Leonidas. Both are both Delta Society therapy dogs who visit schools, hospitals, and participate in community outreach programs.

Barnett and her husband, Anthony, also run Game Dog Guardian, a local organization that rehabilitates pit bulls and helps find them adoptive homes.

John Manard, who escaped from a Kansas prison by hiding inside a dog crate, was sentenced yesterday to another 10 years in federal prison on weapons charges, according to the Kansas City Star.

Manard was sprung from the Lansing Correctional Facility in 2006 by a prison volunteer, who used her dog van to drive him to freedom. Manard was hidden inside a cardboard box placed inside a dog crate.

The volunteer, Toby Young, was the founder of Safe Harbor, a program that rescued dogs from animal shelters and worked with inmates to train the pets and make them suitable for adoption. Married and a mother of two, she became romantically involved with the prisoner while working inside the Lansing Correctional Facility. You can read more about that saga — a Lifetime movie waiting to happen — here.

After leaving the Lansing prison, the two went to Young’s house where they took her husband’s two pistols.

Young, was sentenced to 27 months in prison for giving a firearm to a felon. Manard’s new conviction on charges of being a felon in possession of a firearm comes on top of his escape conviction and a previous murder conviction, for which he was serving a life sentence.