ohmidog!

Singer Patti Page has re-recorded her classic hit, “How Much is that Doggie in the Window?” in hopes that a more politically correct version — “Do You See That Doggie in the Shelter?” — will steer the public away from puppy mills dogs.

The 81-year-old Page, whose autobiography, “This is My Song,” comes out next month, originally recorded “How Much is That Doggie” in 1952.

The re-recorded tune, she says, is an effort to bring attention to the plight of shelter dogs awaiting adoption and the deplorable conditions in puppy mills that supply dogs to some pet stores.

The new lyrics were written by Page’s publicist, Sanford Brokaw, and Chris Gantry, composer of the 1968 Glen Campbell classic, “Dreams of the Everyday Housewife.”

The first live performance of the song, during its recording, was played to an audience that included three rescued Bassett hounds and a rescued Italian Greyhound.

Page says she hopes that when people now hear the old familiar “Doggie” melody, they’ll think about homeless animals and animal shelters instead of pet stores and puppy mills.

Firefighters in Plum, Pennsylvania said they used an industrial-strength vacuum to pull a Shih Tzu puppy — a family’s Christmas gift — from the bottom of an abandoned well.

The pup, named Romeo, fell into the well — actually a narrow drainage pipe — during the weekend.

After three hours trying to rescue him, firefighters hooked up an industrial-strength vacuum, latched on to Romeo’s leg and hoisted him out, Pittsburgh television station WPXI reported. You can see a video here.

“It was a miracle,” said Assistant Fire Chief Jim Scuffle.

The pup wasn’t breathing when it came came out of the well, but firefighters performed mouth-to-snout resuscitation on the way to veterinarian and Romeo awakened and started to breath on its own.

The veterinarian gave the puppy a clean bill of health.

Dozens of volunteers dropped their holiday plans to rescue about 80 puppy mill dogs in Missouri who probably otherwise wouldn’t have made it to the new year.

Now, the National Mill Dog Rescue Network is trying to find homes for all the dogs.

The network was contacted shortly before Christmas by a breeder in Missouri — a state known for its abundance of puppy mills — who wanted to surrender his animals, according to a report by TV station KKTV in Colorado Springs.

“When we asked if they could hold the dogs until after Christmas they let us know they would kill them,” said Helen Freeman, a member of the National Mill Dog Rescue Network.

So a group of volunteers dropped their holiday plans and left for Missouri.

When they got to Missouri Tuesday, another puppy mill owner contacted them, wanting to surrender his animals too. In the end, they returned with more than 80 dogs.

Since then, the dogs have been cleaned up, given medical attention and are enjoying their newfound freedom, Freeman said.

“It’s pretty exciting to watch the transformation from caged dog to, ‘hey, I get to play, I get to be free.’

The National Mill Dog Rescue Network says its more than 200 volunteers have saved more than 1,300 dogs over the last year and a half.

(Photo from National Mill Dog Rescue Network)

Perhaps its says something about my maturity level, but, when it comes to the three new dog movies on the horizon, I’m most excited about “Hotel for Dogs” — a family-friendly flick about two orphans who set up a refuge for dogs in an abandoned hotel.

The DreamWorks/Nickelodeon release opens Jan. 16.

Adapted from author Lois Duncan’s 1971 children’s book of the same name, the movie stars Don Cheadle, Emma Roberts and Lisa Kudrow.

There’s just something about those movies where kids conspire to beat the odds, overcome the bully, and/or outwit the grownups that gets me every time. Throw in a rag-tag collection of dogs and you’ve got a movie I may even leave the house for.

If you’ve read the book, then see the movie, you may notice that while Marley is still shown with all his behavioral warts on the big screen, the story has been sanitized in at least one way: The real Marley came from a  breeder in Florida, while in the movie Marley is a “rescue.”

It’s a minor alteration, and far from nefarious, but it does show the clout animal welfare organizations can have – and how, when the media cooperates with them, they return the favor.

Even PETA — despite its objections to using animals for entertainment, despite a scene in which a dog is walking on its front legs while its rear is held by a passenger in a moving car — has given the movie “two paws up” for sending the message that pets, no matter how problematic their behavior, are for keeps.

“Dogs are members of the family, and Marley and Me reminds moviegoers that they deserve to be treated as such,” says PETA Vice President Lisa Lange. “We hope this movie inspires people to stand by their animal companions — even when it’s not easy — and to love them unconditionally, just as they love us.”

Read more »

Vice president-elect Joe Biden, who faced some heat for his decision to purchase a dog from a breeder, says his family plans to get a second dog — this one from a shelter or rescue organization.

“We’re going to have more than one puppy,” he said in on the ABC News show This Week With George Stephanopoulous.

Biden’s purchase of a 6-week-old German shepherd from a Chester County breeder Dec. 6 touched off a national debate about pet-shopping, with critics pointing to the millions of dogs euthanized in shelters each year.

Biden said his family is not getting the dog in an effort to appear politically correct, but because his wife wants it, and because his family has almost always had two dogs. Read more »

Five dogs — four pups and their mother — were killed in a fire early today at a pet grooming store in the Chicago suburb of Romeoville.

Eight dogs and a few birds were rescued.

A passerby who was visiting a nearby 7-Eleven convenient store noticed smoke coming from the back of Suzette’s Dog Grooming and called 911 about midnight, according to the Associated Press.

Fire crews forced their way inside and began to search for the fire, which appeared to have started in a storage or bathroom in the one-story building, officials said. Four puppies and their mother in the room where the fire started perished, but firefighters rescued eight other dogs and some birds that were in a cage.

Colleen Spalioni went to an animal shelter to find a dog.

She went home with 27.

The rescued pooches — including 10 Chihuahua mixes, one purebred Chihuahua, a Jack Russell, a poodle, two shepherd mixes, two miniature pinschers and an Australian cattle dog mix — were apparently facing euthanasia.

Spalioni, of Sparks, Nevada, was looking for a dog to replace the pointer she lost in November to a car accident, according to the Reno Gazette Journal.

She found one on the website DogsinDanger.com, which posts photos of dogs in shelters and the number of days until they are euthanized. It was nearly 400 miles away, but Spalioni made the trip to Delano, Calif., near Bakersfield, accompanied by a neighbor, in her pick-up.

There she learned how many more dogs were facing euthanasia — and adopted them all. Delano police animal control officers helped her load the 27 dogs into her pickup. Some fit in the cab, with the rest in the truck bed with a down blanket and a tarpaulin over the top.

Spalioni did all this while her husband was away on a business trip. He returns home today.

One dog died on the trip home, and two more since. The 24 others yelped enough to lead her neighbors to complain, and it has been pointed out to her that a local ordinance sets a limit of three dogs per household.

“I didn’t realize I was going to be in so much trouble or that so many  people would be so angry at what I did,” Spalioni said. “But after I lost my dog who gave me so much unconditional love, I couldn’t leave these dogs to die.”

She had found homes for all but three of the dogs as of Monday, and said she hoped to place the remaining dogs before her husband got home.

Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter (BARCS) is lowering its adoption fees for the rest of December, and will waive it entirely for animals two years old and older.

The move comes amid a surplus of abandoned dogs and cats — many of them dropped off by families facing financial difficulties.

“We’re being inundated with healthy, adoptable animals,” said BARCS executive director Jennifer Mead-Brause told the Baltimore Sun. “We have people driving up in U-Hauls, dropping off their pets. It’s heartbreaking.”

On top of that, the economic downturn has resulted in fewer people showing up to adopt.

For pups and kittens six months and younger, the fee will continue to be the usual $65, which includes spay/neuter, vaccinations, and preventatives. For animals aged 7 months up to 2 years, the fee hs been dropped to $10, and for animals under two, there will be no fee at all.

The reduced fees are in effect from Dec. 13 through Dec. 31.

To see the animals now at BARCS, you can visit BARCS Petfinder page, or visit in person, at 301 Stockholm St. Shelter Hours are Monday to Friday, 12:30 to 6:30 p.m.; Saturday & Sunday, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.