ohmidog!

The Maryland SPCA is holding a special screening of Hotel for Dogs Saturday morning at Regal Cinemas Hunt Valley.

Admission is free, but a $5 donation is requested. Donations will help provide food, vaccinations, spay/neuter, shelter, care and enrichment for homeless and lost animals at The Maryland SPCA.

The film stars Emma Roberts and Jake T. Austin as two kids who secretly take in nine stray dogs, using an abandoned building as a dog hotel.

Several adoptable dogs from The Maryland SPCA will be at the theater. Doors open at 10:00 a.m. The movie starts at 10:30 a.m. The theater is at 118 Shawan Road in Cockeysvile.

All moviegoers will be automatically entered into a drawing for one of ten free special edition stuffed dogs. Additional stuffed dogs will be available for a $15 donation.

Because space is limited the SPCA recommends registering by Thursday if you plan to attend. To do so, contact Tami Gosheff at tgosheff@mdspca.org with the names and email addresses of those attending. Names must be on the list for admission.

Jasmine — the pit bull who went from Michael Vick’s dogfighting operation to life with a young family of four in suburban Baltimore — graces the cover of this month’s Sports Illustrated.

One of three Vick dogs turned over to the Baltimore rescue organization Recycled Love for rehabilitation, Jasmine ended up in the home of Catalina Stirling, a 35-year-old artist and Recycled Love volunteer who, upon first meeting Jasmine, crawled into the cage where the dog cowered beneath a blanket.

The Sports Illustrated article looks at what has become of the 51 dogs seized from Vick’s Virginia estate — dogs that even some animal welfare organizations were saying had been so brutalized that euthanasia, not rehabilitation, was the only solution.

Jasmine was likely born at Vick’s Bad Newz Kennels and, because of her youth, was a “bait dog,” used to provide practice matches for the fighting dogs, spending the rest of the time chained to a car axle in the nearby woods.

During evaluations of the Vick dogs, Jasmine was being considered for sanctuary with Best Friends in Utah, where the most severely traumatized dogs were sent, when Recycled Love volunteers went to see her and the other dogs being held at the Washington (DC) Animal Rescue League.

Stirling, seeing the dog under the blanket, crawled into the cage and began massaging and whispering to her, and Jasmine seemed to respond. The dog was turned over to Recycled Love, then sent to live with Stirling, her husband, two young children, two other dogs and a cat.

For months, Jasmine sat in her cage in Stirling’s house and refused to come out. “I had to pick her up and carry her outside so she could go to the bathroom,” Stirling says. “She wouldn’t even stand up until I had walked away. There’s a little hole in the yard, and once she was done, she would go lie in the hole.”

It was almost four months before Jasmine would get out of the cage by herself. Visits from another Vick dog living in Maryland, Sweet Pea, helped draw Jasmine out of her shell — enough so that after six months Stirling could finally take both dogs for a walk in a park near her house.

Jasmine is still fearful, the article says. She almost always walks with her head and tail down. She won’t let anyone approach her from behind, and she still spends most of the day in her pen, sitting there quietly, even thought the door is open.

In the end, 47 of the 51 Vick dogs were saved. Two died while in the shelters. One was destroyed because it was too violent; and another was euthanized for medical reasons. Twenty-two dogs went to Best Friends. The other 25 have been spread around the country. Ten went to California with BAD RAP. Fourteen of the 25 have been placed in permanent homes, and the rest are in foster care.

(To  learn more about the Vick dogs, you can check out ohmidog!’s earlier incarnation, Mutts.)

Three years and $3 million in the making, the Downtown Dog Resort & Spa has opened in South Baltimore.

Owned by Baltimore attorney Barry R. Glazer, the new facility offers boarding, day care and grooming by appointment. It has a hydrotherapy pool and doggie gym, as well, and future plans call for a veterinary clinic and retail space.

Dog owners can also choose from special packages and a menu of extras that include, gourmet meals, cuddle time, bottled water and email updates. Boarding prices start at $32 a night, and go up to $49 a night for the kennnel’s “ultra resort” rooms, which are larger and offer flat screen TV, fluffy bed and web cams.

The kennel, which is taking reservations for the Christmas holidays, has 90 units, and Glazer plans to devote at least 10 spaces to rescue dogs.

It’s also very convenient to I-95 — in its shadow, in fact — in the area off Hanover Street that is home to the recently cleaned up and soon to reopen Swann Park. The park was closed in April, 2007, after tests found elevated arsenic levels in the soil. About 13,000 tons of contaminated soil were removed from the park, which was above the approved cleanup standard. It’s scheduled to reopen in 2009.

The Dog Report & Spa, at 200 W. McComas St., doesn’t have a website up yet, but it can be reached at 443-869-4071, or by emailing thedowntowndogresortandspa@gmail.com.

Glazer — whatever you may think of his law firm’s TV ads (”Don’t urinate on my leg and tell me it’s raining”) – has a history of helping out dogs, footing the bill for medical services for more than a few pets rescued by Recycled Love. He was recently profiled by “b,” the Baltimore Sun’s lite version.

Here’s his famous ad, which someone recorded off a TV and put on Youtube. The urination line is a sanitized version of one in the movie “The Outlaw Josey Wales” — “Don’t piss down my back and tell me it’s raining.”

Though Santa loves all dogs, some dogs like Santa more than others.

And a few — I discovered during my two-hour stint as St. Nick yesterday in South Baltimore’s Riverside Park — want nothing to do with him at all.

During an event to raise money for BARCS Franky Fund, nearly 100 dogs showed up to have their pictures taken with Santa. You can see all of the photos here.

Most dogs were eager to hop in my lap, but a handful didn’t want to get anywhere near me. Golden retrievers seemed particularly wary of Santa, even when tempted with treats. But one way or another, we managed to get photos of every dog with Santa.

A few dogs, like Lola (above) couldn’t wait to get off Santa’s lap — even dogs who, like her, are long-time friends and normally love me in civilian attire.

The biggest problem was keeping my Santa beard on amid all the squirming. One dog, a golden retriever whose leash I was holding, pulled me out of my bright green lawn chair (a kitschy South Baltimore Christmas was our theme), to the ground, and then actually dragged me a foot or two.

I only got growled at a couple of times, and most of the subjects were cooperative — dogs, humans and the two cats that showed up. All in all, the hardest part was walking the three blocks to the park. Several children stopped me, one of whom wanted a motorcycle for Christmas, but settled for a hug.

Several hundred dollars were raised for the Franky Fund — an emergency fund at Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter that provides medical care to sick and injured animals.

If you missed out, there will be another Franky Fund event (more traditional, and with a different Santa) Saturday, Dec. 6, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Federal Hill Park.

(No animals were harmed in the making of this blog entry.)

A western Maryland man has has been convicted of two counts of animal cruelty for fatally shooting two of his neighbors’ dogs who wandered onto his property.

A German shepherd named Harley was shot in May after he bolted after a rabbit, through a barbed wire fence and onto a neighbor’s property, according to WJZ-TV.

The neighbor, Jeffrey Hurd, of Washington County, had shot and killed another dog, a black lab belonging to the same family, ten months earlier, when it came on his property.

“We need to send a message out that you cannot brutally kill animals like that just for your own enjoyment,” said James Rudolph, whose family owned both dogs.

According to court documents, Hurd fired a high-powered rifle at Harley three times.

Hurd’s lawyer argued his client was trying to protect deer and wild turkeys being chased by the dogs.

Animal cruelty is now a felony in Maryland with a penalty of up to three years in prison. Because Hurd killed two dogs, he faces six years.

In what the Washington Post hailed as a victory for dog walkers, charges were dismissed against a woman who was arrested for letting her leashed miniature poodles walk on a neighbor’s lawn in Calvert County.

The case pitted dog owner Linda May Johnson against her former neighbors, Maryland State Police sergeant James Barth and his wife. Johnson has since moved to New Hamsphire.

The state police filed trespassing charges against Johnson, claiming she and her dogs walked on the Barth’s lawn. The Barths also claimed that the dogs, Ollie and Hershey, relieved themselves on their lawn, but that was not part of the criminal case.

Johnson, 47, was cuffed and hauled to jail after her arrest.

On Monday, the case was placed on the court’s inactive docket.

“Let’s face it. This is two poodles being walked through the neighborhood,” said John Erly, Johnson’s attorney. “They realized it wasn’t a case that was worth their time.”

Assistant State’s Attorney Andrew Rappaport, who the Post said declined to comment on the case, announced in court that the state would officially dismiss the charges against Johnson in six months, provided she did not get arrested or attempt to contact the Barths.

In a temporary restraining owner filed against Johnson in May, Jennifer Barth wrote that Johnson would yell obscenities when she walked the dogs in the yard. That temporary order, obtained after Johnson’s arrest, was dismissed when Barth, 35, did not attend a court hearing to finalize it.

“Ultimately, the end result is a dismissal, which is what I wanted,” Johnson told the Post. As for the dogs, “They’re fine. They’re enjoying living in a very dog-friendly neighborhood.”

Back in April, the owners of Canine Fitness Center in Crownsville raised enough money to equip about half of Anne Arundel County’s 30 fire stations with oxygen masks for dogs.

Earlier this month, that effort paid off — or at least it did for Sadie, a six-pound toy fox terrier injured in a car crash.

Sadie was bleeding and apparently unconscious when rescuers from the Anne Arundel County Fire Department and the Odenton Volunteer Fire Department arrived. Rescuers managed to revive her with an adjustable oxygen mask designed to fit an animal’s snout. It was the first time the equipment was used to save the life of a pet, the fire department said.

“I think that them giving her oxygen as quickly as they did was the difference between life and death,” Beverly Sherman, 45, told the Baltimore Sun.

Read more »

Linda Deris took her dog Daisy May to the PetSmart in Abingdon earlier this month to buy her a leash.

And something terrible happened.

Daisy May, a beagle-collie mix, approached another customer’s dog — described in an ABC2 report as a bulldog – and before anybody could stop it, the bulldog bit Daisy May on her back.

“He just chomped down on her back and started throwing her around like she was a rag doll,” Deris told the TV station.

Five people tried to stop the attack, but not soon enough. Daisy May died on the way to the veterinarians office. Deris said the bulldog’s owner was given a citation and allowed to take the dog home.

Jennifer Simmons, a spokeswoman for PetSmart, said in a statement, “This was an extremely unfortunate incident and came as a complete surprise to us and the pet parents of both dogs. To our knowledge … the dog did not show any signs of aggressive behavior during interactions with other people and pets.”

Commenters on the TV station’s website include one self-proclaimed witness who said the two dogs met and wagged their tails. “Then the two owners ceased to watch their dogs. Store associates observed the bulldog staring at the beagle, tail wagging, as if he was looking at a toy, which was when he grabbed the beagle around the scruff area, as if he had a toy.”

“While this was a tragic accident, and something I hope I never see again, the fact of the matter is that when you combine two unfamiliar dogs, and a lack of supervision, you’ve got a recipe for disaster,” the witness added.

Deris told the television station she’s been having nightmares about the attack and is on medication. She adopted a new dog last week. “She was an angel, she was my world,” she said of her dog. ”She just was the sweetest disposition you’d ever want.”

All too often at my park, and maybe your’s, conflicts develop between those who go there to let their dogs get some needed off-leash romping and those who go there to experience something other than big, slobbery, barking, dirty-pawed creatures careening around like a pinballs.

The law, as most of us know, is on the side of the latter. Dogs are required to be on leashes at all times in all of the city parks in Baltimore, and violation of that law can result in a $100 fine.

Nevertheless at my park, Riverside, as at Patterson, Federal Hill, Carroll, Latrobe, Druid Hill, Wyman and others, dog owners regularly take that risk to allow their dogs some exercise. Dogs gotta run and, in the city, the parks are the only game in town.

Having only one official dog park — though more appear to be on the way — means all the rest of the parks must be shared by dogs and humans, which, with a little common sense and respect, is not all that hard to accomplish. In other words, we can all just get along. Read more »

Last week, while going through fan email, I came across a note from a dogless mother of two in Locust Point — unusual because (A) she doesn’t have a dog, (B) she was reading my blog anyway, and (C) she managed to complain about off-leash dogs with a sincerity and civility that rarely accompanies such concerns.

She was seeking an answer, as opposed to grinding an axe, and I thought her concerns were valid, reasonable and so well-stated that I’m reprinting — with her permission —  the whole thing.

I offered her a couple of pointers (not the dogs), and suggested that — If it’s solutions she wants — why not throw it open to the readers, a couple of whom I know for a fact are smarter than me. She was game.

On top of that, her letter serves as a reminder for those of us who sometimes put our dogs needs above everyone else’s. I’ll give you my opinions tomorrow, but for now, here’s Jen:

The family and I are sorta new to the area (about 1.5 yrs coming up). I’m currently a stay-at-home-lose-my-mind-some-days Mom to two girls 2.5 yrs and 15 months respectively.  I’ve had a few troubling incidents with unleashed dogs in Latrobe Park (our ‘hood)  and have been browsing around looking for tips on how to approach the situation. 

Now, before you get all bentoutashape, asking yourself “why are you emailing the author of a dog-centric blog?…let me first say that I am most definitely one of those people who are middle of the road on everything and I try to see everyone’s point of view before taking a stance on something.  I say this before soliciting your opinion/response/advice regarding my predicament:

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