ohmidog!

In another month, he’ll be trying to bring home some gold, but it was back in November that Michael Phelps went to New York for a “Today Show” appearance and came back to Baltimore with a dog.

The olympic swimmer was there to talk about his training regimen — and it was the same day the show was presenting another segment in its Bow To Wow series, in which shelter dogs get makeovers.

He offered to walk that day’s featured dog, a catahoula mix named Penelope, to the outside plaza — and ended up adopting her.

Now renamed Stella, the dog is doing fine, Debbie Phelps, Michael’s mother, reports, and she’s getting along well with Michael’s other dog, a bulldog named Herman.

Michael’s mom told MSNBC that Michael plans to teach Stella to swim soon — maybe once the Olympics are out of the way.

(Photos: Top, MSNBC; close-up by by Lisa Dixon)

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

(UPDATE: Ruth Torres, after reclaiming her dog, surrendered him to the shelter, saying he was too difficult to handle)

A Bronx woman who didn’t even know her dog was lost found him — on an NBC “Today” show segment featuring homeless pets that have been given makeovers and put up for adoption.

“It was a miracle,” said Ruth Torres, whose brother took her Irish Wolfhound — under circumstances not entirely clear — three weeks ago.

Torres, according to MSNBC, didn’t realize Dusty was actually lost until she saw the “Today” show Friday morning.

On the program Jill Rappaport and Center for Animal Care and Control official Richard Gentles were introducing an Irish Wolfhound in the recurring “Bow to Wow” segment.

“They said, ‘Here comes Mooki,’” said Torres.  “I said, ‘That’s not Mooki! It’s Dusty!’ I said, ‘Oh my God, Mommy, hurry, hurry! Dusty’s on TV.’”

Torres and her mother went to the Animal Care and Control Center in East Harlem to claim Dusty.

Shelter workers told Torres that Dusty had been found abandoned at a dog run in the Bronx.

According to MSNBC, Torres believes her brother, who she said has been through some tough times, left Dusty in the park and never called to tell her. When found, Dusty wasn’t wearing a name tag and didn’t have a microchip.

He returned to his old owner Saturday, after the shelter microchipped and licensed him. Torres had to pay for that, but not the makeover.

Take ”Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” replace the straight guys with dogs, throw in some firm tugs on the old heartstrings, and you have a basic understanding of the Animal Planet’s soon to premier program, “Underdog to Wonderdog.”

Every episode will feature the “Wonder Team” — made up of a groomer, carpenter, trainer and, of course, good lookin’ and energetic host  — transforming an “unkempt, undernourished, unloved” shelter dog into a well coiffed, housed and trained family dog.

Having not seen it yet, we give it a D for originality, a C for the inadvertent slap in the face to shelter workers, and a B for meaning well.

The show promises to send each dog through “a complete metamorphoses, becoming the dog it was always destined to be. Every shelter dog is rescued, groomed, trained and rehabilitated before finally being placed into a loving home – equipped with its very own custom-designed dog house.”

The show starts Saturday, January 3, at 8 p.m.

Read more »