ohmidog!

The “Suitcase 6″ are headed to new homes.

Found zipped up inside a canvas suitcase left behind a grocery store in Toledo last month, the six bulldog pups and their mom are being awarded to winners of a lottery held among the more than 100 people who wanted to adopt them.

One of the puppies was adopted Monday afternoon by the foster mom who had been caring for him. The other five, and the mother, are being given to those whose names were pulled in a drawing, according to John Dinon, executive director of the Toldeo Humane Society. He said 132 applications submitted by those interested in giving the dogs a new home,

The organization also received more than 1,000 phone inquiries from across the country, according to the Toledo Blade.

The former owner of the dogs, Howard Davis, was charged with abandonment. He was easily tracked down by authorities because he dropped the dogs off in a suitcase with an ID tag that had his name and address on it.

Davis, who was ordered by the judge to neuter and spay all the animals in his household, will be back in court June 22 for sentencing.

At the humane society on Tuesday, Mark Taylor of Toledo was the first of the lottery winners to arrive, showing up 30 minutes before the shelter opened.

Taylor chose the pup with a spot on his white head, and planned to name him Augustus. “I knew I wanted him as soon as I saw him,” Mr. Taylor said. “He’s laid back. He reminds me of me.”

Jennice and Eddie Collier of Shaker Heights, were also winners, and allowed their 16-year-old daughter, Shontese, to miss school to pick out one of the puppies. Shontese, whose parents said had been asking for a dog for five years, named the one she chose Princess.

Other adopters included an Oregon couple, who chose the solid white puppy and named him Brutus; and David Davison of Toledo, chose the female puppy with the spot on her eye, naming her Petey because she reminded him of the dog on the Our Gang and Little Rascals series.

David and Charlotte Swincicki, who live on 10 acres in Providence Township, adopted Maddie, the mother dog, who stood guard over the suitcase filled with her pups after they were abandoned.

(Photo: THE BLADE / DAVE ZAPOTOSKY)

Donations and adoption offers have poured in for Freeway, the German shepherd who lost a leg after being dragged down a northern California interstate by a pick-up truck.

Freeway, as he is now known, spent some time Friday afternoon playing quietly and getting used to life on three legs. He was visited by Angie Porter and her 13-year-old son, River, who went to his aid after seeing him being dragged down the highway.

As they followed the truck down Interstate 780, honking their horn, the rope the dog was being pulled by snapped when the pick-up truck exited, slamming the dog into a concrete abutment. Authorities are searching for the truck’s driver.

At Benicia Middle School, where Porter works as a campus supervisor, donation pots were placed around campus to raise money for the dog’s medical care, and more than $2,200 has been raised there alone.

The Humane Society of the North Bay has fielded at least two dozen calls offering to adopt Freeway — including one from an Illinois woman, executive director Peter Wilson told the Vallejo Times-Herald.

Freeway’s sutures will be removed in less than two weeks. On Tuesday, he will be transferred to a foster family, Wilson said. In four to six weeks, the humane society will put the dog up for adoption, likely holding a lottery due to the high degree of interest, Wilson said.

Donations for Freeway will go to the Humane Society’s Maya Fund, created to help animals with medical needs.

Anyone with information about the dog, or the driver that left him behind, can call animal services at 707- 333-6039.

(Photo: Chris Riley / Vallejo Times-Herald)

Officials in New Taipei City say their dog poop lottery was a resounding success – more than 4,000 people collected 14,500 bags of excrement.

For each bag they turned in, they were given a lottery ticket, earning them a chance to win gold and household appliances.

Officials in the Taiwan city credit the program with cutting in half the amount of dog droppings on city streets.

The program began in August and was initially planned to run until October, but it was so successful the city extended it a couple of more months — up until they started running out of gold, the BBC reported.

Final prizes were awarded this week, with the big winner receiving a gold ingot worth $2,200. The woman, in her 50s, was part of a team of volunteers that clean the streets regularly.

Smaller gold ingots, worth several hundred dollars, were given to four other prizewinners.

A total of 85 people won prizes, including household appliances.

City officials told the BBC they did not know how many of the winners were motivated by gold, as opposed to people who regularly pick up the poop of their own dogs or other’s.

Officials say they hope residents have gotten into the habit of picking up dog droppings, and that they will continue to do so without financial rewards.

Since I was in elementary school, I’ve had trouble distinguishing New Hampshire from Vermont. I know one of them is fat at the bottom and skinny at the top and the other is skinny at the bottom and fat at the top. I know one is directly east of the other. I know one is the “Live Free or Die” state (though it has always struck me as a rather bold assertion, coming from a license plate).

But — even though I’ve been to both — I’ve never been quite postive which was which. They are easily confused, at least in my head.

Heading north on I-95, I hit New Hampshire — or was it Vermont? No, it was New Hampshire — and was surprised to find myself suddenly coming to a toll booth.

Had I more carefully checked my maps, I would have known, by the green coloring, that portions of I-95 were toll; but I didn’t, so it was a rude awakening — kind of like going to the library and, halfway through a book, being told you’re going to have to pay to read the ending.

On top of that, it struck me as strange. Wait a minute, I thought. Isn’t this the “Live Free or Die” state? Sure, I know that the “free” the slogan refers to is the type we all take for granted, as opposed to the type that I’m always on the lookout for. Still, the two have a lot in common, viewed in an historical perspective — for taxation, and avoiding unfair forms of it, was a big part of America becoming America. So either way, it seemed ironic.

Unless, of course, I had it backwards and Vermont is the live free or die state.

In any event, I forked over my $2 — it seeming a far better choice than dying — and drove on.

A bit later, I stopped in the lovely little town of Portsmouth, N.H., for a quick drive-through and a pack of cigarettes. At a Sunoco station, I noticed some homemade dog treats on the counter and asked if they were made locally.

“In Vermont,” the proprietor answered. “The upside down New Hampshire.”

That got me confused again, temporarily. “And which state am I in?” I asked.

“This is New Hampshire,” he said.

“And which one is the live free or die state?” I asked.

“We are,” he said.

“Is that still the slogan?” I asked.

“Well,” he said, “it depends how many more people from Mass. move up here. If that keeps happening we’ll just be dying.”

New Hampshire also uses I-95 to promote the sale of liquor in its state stores, and state lottery tickets.

In addition to exit signs for historical attractions, food, gas and lodging, New Hampshire prominently posts official signs on the Interstate for exits at which there are state liquor stores and state lottery outlets. It has yet to post signs for other vices — drug dealers, houses of prostitution, strip clubs and the like — but then again, it doesn’t run those operations.

We passed through but a sliver of New Hampshire, and will be visiting its northern reaches in another week or so, as Ace and I make our way back from the top of Maine. From previous visits, I know $2 was a small price to pay to see the White Mountains, in their full fall beauty, no less.

But I still have trouble with Vermont’s … I mean New Hamsphire’s … slogan. It strikes me as a little too drastic — a little too suicide bomber, a little too Toby Keith.

I think the slogan could use some editing. Here’s what I propose: “Live Free.”