ohmidog!

A Boston terrier who was shaken up in a massive freeway pileup in Detroit was carried to safety by a firefighter who knows a few things about dogs in distress.

Matt Schaecher works as a Detroit firefighter two days a week, and as a cruelty investigator for the Humane Society of Huron Valley for the other five.

When Schaecher came upon a woman’s crumpled car at the mile-long accident scene on southbound Interstate 75, he asked if she needed help. “I think my dog might be injured,” she responded.

Schaecher pulled the dog, named Riley, from the car and checked him out while other emergency workers attended to the driver, Heather Ramsey of Ferndale.

“He was shaking almost uncontrollably,” Schaecher said. “Probably a combination of being extremely scared and cold.” As Shaecher cradled the dog in a blanket, Detroit News photographer David Coates took the photo above.

Riley wasn’t injured, and Shaecher placed the dog in the ambulance with his owner. Ramsey has since been released from the hospital, according to AnnArbor.com

Three people, including two children, were killed in the chain reaction of crashes.

Schaecher, who is the lead cruelty investigator for the Humane Society of Huron Valley in Washtenaw County’s Superior Township, said the widely distributed photo of Riley and him served as a positive note amid the lingering horror of the crash.

“Obviously any accident scene or any emergency scene that involves children is extremely difficult,” he said. My heart just goes out to the families of the people that have lost loved ones. I can’t imagine being in that position.”

A dog thrown off a bridge in Lithuania. A dog dragged to death at Colorado National Monument. A dog viciously kicked in a New York elevator.

We’ve shown you all of those in recent weeks at ohmidog! — because, though they are graphic and disturbing, we believe that they need to be seen.

So now we bring you this one of Lucky and Misty, dog and cat — graphic in a way that won’t turn your stomach, graphic in a way that we could use a little more of, graphic in a way that, maybe, we humans could learn from.

Global New Year’s Resolution: Be more like Lucky and Misty.

I have no statistics, just a hunch: Dogs — in addition to all the other places they’re appearing more often (books, TV and movies to name three) — are turning up more regularly on album covers.

The latest I’m aware of is the Saint Bernard who graces the cover of Norah Jones’ new album, ”The Fall.”

The dog on the cover isn’t her’s — just one of several model dogs that the photographer planned to use in a group shot.

“She wanted to use a bunch of dogs because she likes working with animals. I thought it sounded fun,” Jones said in an interview with Hulu’s blog “We ended up just loving the Saint Bernard so much that we got some shots with just him. He was so beautiful.”

Jones is a dog lover, doting in particular on her rescued poodle Ralph.

“My dogological clock started to tick. So I got a dog … I’m madly in love with him,” the songstress told NPR’s Morning Edition. “I like to say that he’s a scruffy, manly poodle, because you say poodle and people start rolling their eyes… ”

Ralph also served as the inspiration for the closing track of the album, “Man of the Hour,” whose lyrics recite the many advantages living with a dog has over living with a man.

Here’s her recent performance of the song on ”Good Morning America.”

 
It may look like the kind of big, fluffy white towel you get in a five-star hotel, but, on closer inspection, you’ll see it’s a sharpei.

An ohmidog! reader passed this one along. So I don’t know to whom a photo credit is due. But I had to share it, anyway.

 Shepard Fairey, the Los-Angeles street artist whose Obama poster became an instant icon — and got him sued — has turned his skills to dogs, creating a mutt version of the red, white and blue poster to help support the cause of pet adoptions.

Four hundred limited edition prints are being offered online today by adoptapet.com, a non-profit pet organization, similar to petfinder.com, that helps shelters, humane societies and rescue group advertise their homeless pets to adopters for free.

Sales of the prints, signed and numbered by Fairey, are being sold at $200 each, with proceeds going to ”help animals in shelters and rescue groups to get seen and adopted,” the organization said.

To try and get one, or download your own smaller version, click here.

The poster is based on a photo by Clay Myers, professional animal welfare photographer, and Fairey used it with his permission.

For the Obama poster, he apparently neglected that step and, as a result, is being sued by the Associated Press for copyright infringement. The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation.

Also today, an exhibit of Fairey’s work, entitled Supply and Demand, is opening at the Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston.