ohmidog!

Eight months after she was stabbed seven times with a steak knife, Chloe the Shih Tzu lives in a new and happy home with a veterinarian who works at the animal hospital where she was treated for her injuries.

“…She certainly hasn’t let it get her down,” said Abby Dunlap, of Vienna, Va., who took the patient home after it was decided her previous owner shouldn’t get her back.

The three-year-old dog, formerly known as Coco, was living with her owner in  Southeast D.C. when the owner’s brother, claiming the dog was Satan, stabbed her seven times, according to the Washington Times

Miraculously, no vital organs were hit, and Chloe, after being stitched and bandaged, recovered.

Police took her to  the animal hospital, where it was discovered that, miraculously, the knife had not hit any vital  organs.

“She was very lucky,” said Scott  Giacoppo, a spokesman for the Washington Humane Society.  ”…I’ve seen animals stabbed, beaten, set on fire and discarded like trash.  It’s horrible. But we  get stories like Chloe’s and it brings a smile to our faces that we can make a  difference.”

Dunlap said she and her husband had just lost their own dog when they volunteered to foster Chloe.

“It took a little bit of time for me to trust her and figure out if we wanted to keep her.”

But now Chloe has bonded — with Dunlap, her husband, their children and other dogs in the neighborhood, she says.

(Photo: Washington Times)

I’m a proponent of spending more time with your dog, and less with your computer, but here’s an interesting, and interactive,  presentation from WNYC in New York, which has mapped out not just what breeds dominate the city’s neighborhoods, but what names as well.

Citywide, the top three female names for dogs are Bella, Princess and Lola; the top male names are Max, Rocky and Lucky and the top breeds are Yorkie, Shih Tzu and Maltese.

(Actually the most popular dog in New York is the mutt, and WYNC does report that elsewhere. Somehow they didn’t rate getting on the map, though.)

What’s the most fun though is scrolling through the boroughs to see where Lola tops Lucy, where Buddy beats Buster as the name of choice, and what breeds are, from neighborhood to neighborhood, most predominant. While Yorkies dominate most areas, there are enclaves where Labs and Chihuahuas and pit bulls are owned in the highest numbers. There’s a major English bulldog contingent in lower Manhattan, and pit bulls are the highest in number in Bed Stuy.

The list is based on information WNYC obtained from the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, which runs the city’s dog licensing program.

The feature has some other bells and whistles, too, including opportunities to play games and make a t-shirt.

Just after WNYC came out with its map, Gothamist put together an interactive map of its own – this back in January — claiming to show not where the dogs are, but where their poop is, or at least where it’s most complained about. The map shows what neighborhoods have the most barking dog complaints, too.

One wonders what would happen if those two interactive maps were to interact. Would that reveal large dogs named Brutus leave bigger droppings than Chihuahuas named Princess? That Sparky barks more than Snoozy?

Somewhere we have to draw line on all this interactivity with our computers — especially that share of it that’s presenting information that’s just everyday knowledge or common sense or entirely bogus.

In those cases, your time would be better spend interacting with the dog.

An 82-year-old woman in Detroit has lost her Sugar Daddy.

The woman, named Audrey, said she was about to get into her car when a suspect assaulted her in front of her home, snagged her 7-year-old shih tzu, Sugar Daddy, and tried to steal her second shih tzu, Baby Doll.

“He caught Sugar Daddy, and he tried to get Baby Doll,” the woman, who wasn’t identified by her full name, told WXYZ. “He couldn’t get Baby Doll, she fought back. He took Sugar Daddy and left.”

Audrey says she has been unable to sleep since the dog was taken” “I wake up all in the middle of the night thinking about him. Every time I close my eyes I see him.”

A suspect, described as in his 20s, was waiting in the woman’s driveway, where the attack took place, and another suspect was waiting nearby in a car.

Surveillance video from a nearby school showed a car backing up to Audrey’s house on Detroit’s West Side, and what appears to be two men trying to steal the dogs.

Baby Doll ran from the men, and almost got run over by a garbage truck as she fled.

Audrey and her family members have put up flyers about Sugar Daddy’s disappearance and are offering a reward his return.

An Iowa couple whose dog was stolen when they were visiting San Antonio has gotten her back — though exactly how isn’t clear.

James Maschmann and his wife were visiting the city in February when they stopped to eat, parking their car at a Cracker Barrel and leaving their 4-year-old shih-poo inside, with the windows cracked.

When they returned, Katie Jo was missing along with Maschmann’s cellphone, according to the San Antonio Express-News

Last week, the couple posted an ad on Craigslist, offering  $1,000 for the dog’s return. San Antonio police  also issued an alert last week, releasing surveillance video of a white pick up truck seen in the parking lot and asking people to come forward with any information about Katie Jo.

Police haven’t said how Katie Jo was found, or whether anyone was charged in the theft.

But according to a Facebook page dedicated to Katie Jo’s return, the animal was recovered and returned early Monday:

“Katie Jo is home safe and sound!! Thank you to everyone for the thoughts and prayers! We are absolutely overjoyed to have her back!”

A poodle-shih tzu mix whose face, from some angles, bears a striking resemblance to that of a human, is gaining fame far beyond Mishawaka, Indiana.

Tonik, 2 years old, is one of over 100 dogs waiting to be adopted at the Homeward Bound Shelter in Mishawaka. Rescued from a kill shelter, he has been there since 2011.

But since posting a photo of Tonik — taken by Renny Mills, who photographs adoptable animals for the shelter’s website — the shelter says inquiries about the dog have been pouring in.

The photos drew attention from Gawker and Huffington Post, and, while Tonik was still available this week, Homeward Bound founder Jen Schwartz says chances are good he’ll be finding a home soon.

You can see him and the shelters other animals at the Homeward Bound’s website.

(Photo: Renny Mills)

Upset that her family’s parked car had been blocked by another vehicle, a Newark woman threatened and assaulted the car’s owner and threw her shih tzu into oncoming traffic, authorities say.

Honey Bey, 2 years old, died instantly.

Nearly ten months later, an Essex County grand jury indicted Haniyyah Barnes (above right) this week on charges of  animal cruelty, burglary, criminal mischief and theft, according to the Newark Star-Ledger

Prosecutors said a Newark police officer who happened to be patrolling in the area saw Barnes storm out of the house with one hand around the 4-pound dog’s throat and toss her into the street.

The argument began when Barnes went to the home of a neighbor who was allowing Barnes’ mother to park her car there. The homeowners vehicle was blocking it in the driveway.

Prosecutors say Barnes, 25, began screaming and kicked in the woman’s front door, then threatened and assaulted the woman.

At that point, Honey Bey, the 31-year-old homeowner’s dog, started barking. Barnes grabbed the dog and threw her into oncoming traffic, police said.

“It was a tiny dog that was barking instinctively to protect its owner,” said Assistant Essex County Prosecutor Michele Miller. “It wasn’t attacking the defendant. It went to see what the commotion was and paid for it with its life.”

If convicted, Barnes faces up to 10 years in prison on a second-degree burglary charge and five years for the third-degree animal cruelty count. She remains free on bail and an arraignment is scheduled for June 18 in Superior Court in Newark.

Barnes’ public defender could not be reached for comment. A relative told the Star-Ledger that Barnes “wasn’t in her right mind when she did it,” and that she believed alcohol played a role in the incident.

What at least one doctor prescribed, a New York housing complex says must go — a Shih Tzu that helps a seven-year Army veteran cope with his post-traumatic stress.

Eugene Ovsishcher returned from a nine-month combat tour in Afghanistan suffering nightmares, flashbacks and anxiety, leading a psychiatrist and his family doctor to advise he get a dog.

Last August he did — a Shih Tzu puppy that he named Mickey because he crawled like a mouse. Mickey woke him from nightmares and served to calm him down when he was alone and anxious.

“Take a look at his face,” Ovsischcher told the New York Times. “You can’t stay anxious or angry or whatever. You look at that face and you start laughing.”

But those in charge at his housing complex, Trump Village in Coney Island, aren’t laughing. They’ve ordered him to get rid of the dog, in accordance with their no-pets policy, or leave.

Ovsishcher says he’d rather give up his home, where he lives with his wife, Galina, and their two children, Philip, 15, and Yaffa, 10.

“I can’t get rid of a family member,” said Ovsishcher, 42, who enlisted in the Army five years after immigrating from Moscow in 1994. “If they asked me which I want to keep, the kids or the apartment, I would keep the kids. Same thing with the dog.”

Ovsishcher says that the building staff has seen him with his dog since Mickey showed up in August and that nothing was done to remove him until February, when he received a warning letter. Under New York law, a loophole allows dog owners who don’t receive notification to get rid of a dog within 90 days to keep their dogs. He also says he applied to register Mickey with the building as a comfort dog, but he was turned down.

A subway repairman, Ovsishcher served with NATO troops in Kosovo, and then as a field artillery sergeant in Afghanistan, where enemy rocket fire took a toll on him psychologically.

Ovsishcher’s lawyer, Maddy Tarnofsky, has filed a federal housing discrimination complaint on his behalf.

“The heart of this story is that there is a guy who comes to this country and enlists and puts himself in harm’s way,” Ms. Tarnofsky said. “He didn’t have to do this, and he comes back damaged and they spit on him. A doctor recommends he have a support animal, and for some unknown reason they decide that they’re not doing this for him.”

(Photo: Ángel Franco / The New York Times)

What breed would you expect a dog named Gizmo to be? How about Fifi? Rocky? Trooper? Bubba?

As you’ve probably noticed at the dog park, certain names seem to go with certain breeds.

Gizmos are usually shih tzus, Fifis poodles, and Rockys Rottweilers. Trooper is likely a Lab or German shepherd, and chances are Bubba’s a coonhound.

Beyond all the obvious instances — dalmatians named Spot, Great Danes named Marmaduke, beagles named Snoopy and collies named Lassie — there’s a tendency to bestow certain names on certain breeds, notes noted baby naming expert Laura Wattenberg.

So much so that she’s made a word cloud game of it. (You can find it, here)

“The names you like, and the kind of dog you like, seem to inform each other,” said Wattenberg, who has spent some time analyzing name-breed data and found some patterns within. “If you love the idea of a dog named Jethro, it says a lot about the breed of dog you’ll want.”

Wattenberg, best known as an authority on baby-naming trends, poured over the websites of animal shelters and breeders to compile a list of 5,000 dog names and photos. She found the type of name chosen was frequently dependent on the breed, according to the Vancouver Sun.

Wattenberg says she’s considering developing an online name-recommendation engine that takes a dog’s breed into account.

While the biggest trend in naming dogs is still the use of human names, giving them “fitting” names, based on perceptions of their breed, remains a strong tradition.

“Human names are rising across the board. But the kind of name you choose probably depends on the breed and your lifestyle,” she says. “The names reflect either our impression of those dogs or the kind of people who choose them.”

Hunting breeds are likely to get “down-home country names,” such as Bubba, Roscoe or Jethro; Corgis are prone to getting preppy names, like Lacey, Colby and Reggie; and Rottweilers often get macho names, like Rocky, Hunter and Duke, she says.

Pet owners also turn to a breed’s country of origin — or at least that most commonly associated with it — to come up with a name. Thus, there are many Chihuahuas called Chi-Chi, Diego and Pablo; poodles named Pierre, Fifi and Pepe; and Siberian huskies dubbed Sasha, Juneau and Yukon.

(Photo: A Rottweiler named Rocky, by John Woestendiek)

Oreo, the South Carolina shih tzu whose owner put him out with the trash, has a new home.

Kevin and C.J. Miller, of Greenville, adopted Oreo Friday at the Greenville County animal shelter.

Last month, sanitation workers found Oreo in a trash bin waiting to be picked up at the curb. They returned the dog to his owner and called animal control officers who, when they arrived, found he had been put in the trash again.

Oreo’s former owner, Nancy Smythe, 58, of Spartanburg, has been fined $470 for ill treatment of animals, and another $80 because Oreo was not vaccinated against rabies.

“I just couldn’t believe someone would throw a dog in the trash, much less a dog this sweet,” said Kevin Miller, who picked the dog up Friday.

The Millers have a shih tzu at home, named Bam Bam, and had another who, partially blind and battling cancer, had to be put down in December, according to the Spartanburg Herald Journal.

They had visited several shelters before hearing of Oreo’s story.

“When I saw his picture on the Internet, I thought that’s him — that’s the dog,” C.J. Miller said.

(Photo: Michael Justus / Spartanburg Herald Journal)

The South Carolina woman who put her live dog out with the trash, got caught, then did it again, has been found guilty of ill treatment of animals, officials in Spartanburg County say.

Nancy Smythe, 58, was fined $470 for ill treatment of animals, and fined another $80 because the dog was not vaccinated against rabies, according to GoUpstate.com.

An employee with a trash collection company found the dog inside a trash can outside of Smythe’s residence earlier this month. The worker took the dog to Smythe’s residence, where, after initially denying it, she identified the dog as her’s. The worker called animal control officers before leaving, and when they arrived they found the shih tzu in the trash can again, under two bags of garbage.

Smythe told officers that she “needed to get rid of the dog.”

The dog, named Oreo, is now at Greenville County Animal Care, where Susan Bufano said he’s not nearly as shy and reserved as she expected he’d be.

“He is just a love,” she said of the dog, believed to be about 8 years old.

Oreo was not neutered, was loaded with fleas and had other skin problems when he arrived, but he is being treated with antibiotics and improving, she said.

Bufano has received about 200 calls and emails — from people as far away as Arizona, New York and Texas — willing to provide Oreo a home. The pool of potential adoptees has been narrowed to about 20, she said.