ohmidog!

Cool Hand Luke, a chocolate Lab, was shot and killed by police officers responding to a burglar alarm in Georgia.

His owner wants an apology.

“I don’t want anything else out of this,” said Robby King of Smyrna. “This is life changing for me. Luke was such a big part of my life and I didn’t realize what all I did with him until now.”

The 6-year-old chocolate lab was shot by a Cobb County police officer Sunday, according to the Marietta Daily Journal.

A spokesman for the Cobb County Police Department told the newspaper that, while he could not discuss the incident, the two officers involved “followed proper protocol.”

King, 45, says he accidentally triggered the burlgar alarm at his home Sunday afternoon, and couldn’t remember the password required to turn it off.

Two Cobb County police officers, identified as  J.P. Gibson and G. M. Roach, responded.

Roach, in his report, said that when he opened the back door of the home and announced he was a police officer a “large brown dog” came running toward him, “barking aggressively.”

According to his report — and we’ll admit to not understanding this part – he didn’t close the door because it would have put him in “immediate risk of danger from the unknown that was inside the residence.”

He continues: “While quickly retreating out of the patio, the large brown dog continued to charge toward me in an aggressive manner while continuously barking at me as he advanced on me. The large dog closed the distance between me and him in less than three seconds. I fired one round at the large dog and it continued charging me in an aggressive manner as if the dog’s main focus was attacking and harming me. I fired one more round at the large dog and it immediately collapsed falling to its left side in the grass.”

Did he mention it was a large dog?

Gibson’s report described things more briefly: ”A dog began to bark and came at Officer Roach. Officer Roach shot the dog.”

King says he never heard the officers announce their presence.

“… I heard Luke bark and I said, ‘Luke come,’ as I was headed through the house … I heard a pop, pop and as I was headed out the door, I said, ‘Oh God, please don’t shoot my dog,’ and Luke was laying there, gasping for air.”

King said Luke always barked when someone was at the door.

“… If the officer had just stopped, Luke would have gone up to him and just sniffed him and probably would have gone and gotten a ball to fetch. I know the (officer) didn’t know that, but my point is that he didn’t have to shoot my dog. He could have shot up in the air, maced him, kicked him, whatever he wanted to do. He wouldn’t have bit him.”

Police also said they were told by a neighbor that Luke had bitten her.

The neighbor, though, who is also King’s sister, told the Daily Journal that police apparently misunderstood her. She said she told them she’d recent been bitten by another dog, a Chihuahua.

“The reason I said that was because I was trying to point out to them that this little dog bit me and Luke never even bit nobody,” she said.

King, who adopted Luke when the dog was six months old, buried him near the garden in his backyard late Sunday night.

“I haven’t been able to stop crying. This was the hardest thing I ever had to do,” he said.

(Photo by Todd Hull / Marietta Daily Journal)

The photo above shows Scott Dunn of Marietta, Georgia, burying his dog Duncan, a boxer who died after waking his master and allowing him to escape from his burning house.

It was taken by John Spink, a photographer for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, whose coverage of the story has prompted many offers of assistance for Dunn.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution says offers have come from as far as Washington to help the man, who lost all his possessions, including the boxer that he called the “best dog in the world.”

Dunn’s dog woke him during the blaze, and they ran out of the house together. During the confusion, though, the dog ran back inside and when Dunn tried to rescue him he was beaten back by the smoke and flames.

The story seems to have touched the hearts of many.

“I breed boxer puppies, and I know that they are the perfect family dog, and more,” wrote a man from Iowa. “This story goes to show how much they care for the ones that take care of them. I would like to offer this fella a pup, free of charge, if and when he is ready for one.”

Two other readers wrote the AJC saying they would like to purchase a new dog for Dunn, and another offered his own 6-week-old puppy.

“I am not wealthy by any means, but it would be a good gesture to give to someone who needs a hand,” wrote a woman from Washington. “I have no family, just my four-legged family, and they are the very best and mean the whole world to me.”

The AJC says it will be putting all of the readers who have offered assistance in contact with Dunn.

(Photo: Scott Dunn, after burying his dog, Duncan, in his back yard; by John Spink, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

Jennifer Schwenker has spoken publicly for the first time since she, her autistic twin sons and their service dog, Barkley, were bullied out of a Marietta, Ga., McDonald’s last month.

Schwenker said she was just trying to leave the restaurant when she accidentally spilled some of her drink on the off-duty manager who had ordered them out.

“I accidentally dropped the drink just trying to get out the door frantically,” she  told 11Alive News in an exclusive interview Monday.

The drink splashed on several people, including the off duty manager, who followed Schwenker outside and, out of the view of cameras, slapped her, police said.

The manager, Tiffany Denise Allen, 25, was fired and faces misdemeanor assault and battery charges.

Schwenker was having lunch with her twin 8-year-old sons, Ben and Sam, and their autism service dog, Barkley, a Labrador and bloodhound mix who was trained at “4 Paws for Ability”, of Xenia, Ohio, when the off-duty manager insisted the dog had to leave the restaurant.

“Most of the time people don’t understand about autism dogs and what they do,” Schwenker said.

She said Barkley joined their family two years ago, and helps calm her sons, as well as keep track of them.

As a result of her McDonald’s experience, Schwenker has created a web site called “Animals in Service for Children” and is using it to tell her family’s stories and those of others that may have had similar problems.

The manager of a Marietta, Ga., McDonald’s punched a mother of two autistic boys in the face after a dispute that started when the manager ordered the twin boys’ service dog, Barkley, out of the store, police said.

The boys’ mother, Jennifer Schwenker, said the incident took place on July 12 when she took the boys to the McDonald’s on Bells Ferry Road to have lunch, WSBTV reported.

The family was about to leave when Tiffany Denise Allen, an off-duty store manager, told them there were no dogs allowed, police said.

Schwenker explained that Barkley is a service dog, allowed by federal law in all public places including restaurants. Schwenker offered to provide proof of the permit for the dog, Marietta police said.

A surveillance tape from the store shows Allen following the family around the McDonald’s. When Schwenker tried to leave, she lost track of one of the boys. She threw her drink on the floor and it splashed on Allen, police said.

The tape shows Allen running after Schwenker in a rage, police said.

Allen has been charged with battery assault and disorderly conduct.

The store issued a statement saying the manager had been fired.