ohmidog!

Mu Shu was just four pounds and four weeks old when she fell off a livestock truck in Kansas and was picked up off the highway and taken home by the owner of Hunter, a yellow Lab.

That was in April, and Hunter would go on to become best friends with the piglet who, before bouncing off the truck, was likely destined for a growing farm and a future as ham.

Stacie Tonn picked the unconscious pig up off U.S. Highway 50, and with help from her veterinarian husband, Shane, their four daughters and Hunter, nursed Mu Shu back to health.

Hunter licked and nudged the injured piglet, and helped her get around when she regained consciousness. Left blinded — only temporarily — by the accident, the piglet would sniff Hunter out and follow him around, curling up with him for naps, according to Kansas.com.

Seven months later, Mu Shu is now 300 pounds, and living at Walton Rural Life Center, a charter school, where she helps teach children about livestock and agriculture.

But she still gets together with Hunter, who visits her once or twice a month.

“She still knows the sound of my truck. When I pull up to her pen, she will pop out with excitement. She knows she’s going to get snacks,” Stacie Tonn said.

Walton Rural Life Center serves 167 students, from kindergarten to fourth grade, and students are responsible for feeding Mu Shu and the other animals and maintaining their pens.

“Pigs are our biggest project,” said kindergarten teacher Rhonda Roux. “If she stays healthy, we are thinking of breeding her and having a litter of piglets.”

As for Hunter, he doesn’t seem intimidated in the least by Mu Shu’s girth, or how she so quickly passed him in size since the days he was licking her motionless body.

“She had a lot of bruising and was pretty unresponsive … Neither one of us thought she would live past 48 hours,” Shane Tonn told Kansas.com in an earlier story

You can see a video of Hunter playing with Mu Shu, when she was still a piglet, here.

(Top photo, taken in April, by Mike Hutmacher / Kansas.com)

We can’t get too excited about the “dog headed pig monster.”

Reports out of Namibia, on the southwest coast of Africa, say residents have been terrorized by a “bizarre pig-dog hybrid” with a doglike head and the body of pig.

That’s not him to the left — just the closest we could come.

For, unfortunately, there’s no photographic evidence — not even of the fuzzy, grainy, Chupacabra, Bigfoot sort — of the dog headed pig monster.

But legitimate news organizations, like MSNBC, and the Huffington Post, are reporting that the dog-pig hybrid (and no, dogs and pigs can’t successfully mate) have been spotted, chasing and attacking dogs, goats and other domestic animals.

One Namibian official, regional councilor Andreas Mundjindi, was quoted in Informante newspaper as saying, “This is an alien animal that the people have not seen before.” It seems to appear out of nowhere, he added. “We don’t have a forest here, only bushes. So, this must be black magic at play.”

Some villagers suspect the animal belongs to a reputed witch doctor in the area.

The piece on MSNBC — from the website Life’s Little Mysteries — says it’s not the first time unusual animals have been spotted in rural parts of Namibia. In July 2009 concerns arose over unknown creatures reportedly sucking the blood out of livestock, including nearly two dozen goats.

Nobody ever saw them though, and those who tried to track their footprints said they mysteriously stopped, as if the animal had vanished, or been beamed up, or spontaneously combusted.

Is it black magic, or just yellow journalism?

Only the dog headed pig monster knows.

Real Ham Bone for Dogs — dog treats made in Missouri from the femurs of pigs — are under review by the Food and Drug Administration after complaints of them causing serious injury and death in dogs.

If warranted, an FDA spokesman said, the FDA will take appropriate action and notify the public, the Associated Press reported.

The product — a smoked pig femur sold as a dog treat or chew bone — is distributed nationally under the Dynamic Pet Products label of Frick’s Quality Meats in Washington, Mo.

The company said Thursday it was saddened to learn of the illnesses and deaths of customers’ pets, and that quality and safety remain priorities. The packaging contains a warning about the product not being for all dogs, and the possibility that it could splinter.”

“That is why every package contains a label that provides detailed instructions to owners on how they can help their pets best enjoy our products,” the company said in a statement. “We strongly encourage owners to supervise their pets with any treats or snacks.”

The Better Business Bureau of St. Louis said consumers have complained about the bones splintering, and pieces  obstructing dogs’ intestines. Consumers reported their dogs had become lethargic or were vomiting. One man came home to find his dog dead, bleeding from the mouth.

An 80-pound pot-bellied pig is helping bring an 8-year-old with autism out of his shell in Fayetteville, North Carolina — or at least it was until a city inspector spotted it.

The special connection between boy and pig was interrupted last month when city inspectors — though no one had complained about the pig — left the family a notice that they were violating a city code barring hogs from the corporate limits.

As a result, the family had to return the pig, named Loopey, to where they bought it, at a ranch a half-hour away, according to the Fayetteville Observer.

Now Lisa Pia is fighting to get the law changed on behalf of her son, Anthony.

“Soon as he saw her, it was love at first sight,” Lisa Pia told WRAL News, recalling Anthony’s first meeting with the female pig they named Loopey. Anthony doted on Loopey and, as the pig grew, they comforted each other through thunderstorms and played in the family’s backyard. At night, the pig slept in Anthony’s room. Each day, Anthony raced home from school to be with his pet pig.

“We were just excited for him that finally, he’s coming out and he’s not in his shell anymore, and he’s doing things, and playing and interacting,” Pia said.

Then came an unexpected letter from city inspectors, informing the Pias of the Fayetteville ordinance that makes it “unlawful to keep hogs within the corporate limits.” A city inspector had spied Loopey in the Pias’ backyard while in the neighborhood on an unrelated matter. The Pias returned Loopey to the ranch where they had bought her. But they hope to get permission so he can return.

The Pias — wearing T-shirts emblazoned with a picture of Loopey and Anthony — appealed to the Fayetteville City Council to review the ban on swine, or make an exception for Loopey as a therapy animal for Anthony.

The city council members voted 6-2  to authorize staff members to research what would be entailed in revising the ordinance. The issue is likely to be discussed again at the city council’s next work session on September 8.

An online petition for “Friends for Loopey” has gathered nearly 5,000 signatures.

And this little pig went to YouTube, where he’s developed quite a following. Speaking of following, as you’ll see, it appears to be what Kingsford — as the piglet is named — does best.