ohmidog!

Monika Wesolowski wanted to adopt the pit bull mix she became a foster mom to this summer, after he was found in northwest Georgia with his throat cut.

But, given his ability — once he recovered — to jump over her chain link fence, there was no way she could keep him unless a fence was to magically appear.

Now it looks like a fence is going to magically appear.

The dog was brought into Murray County Animal Control in July with a slash across his neck so deep his trachea was visible. A Facebook post about the dog,  named Braveheart by animal control staffers, led the Animal Rescue League of Northwest Georgia to pick him up, take him to a veterinary clinic for surgery and search for a foster home.

Wesolowski, who volunteers with the Animal Rescue League, agreed to care for him during his recovery — even though she knew that, when the time came to give him up, it would be difficult.

When Braveheart was to be put up for adoption last month, she told the Rome News-Tribune, “I just had a meltdown. I was like, ‘I can’t do this.’”

She wanted to keep the dog, but, with two dogs of her own and a backyard fence Braveheart could easily jump, she felt he’d be better off elsewhere.

When she described the dilemma on Braveheart’s Facebook page, suggestions poured in, and when she followed one of them, establishing an online fund drive, money poured in, too – enough to build a new fence.

Wesolowski has raised $1,500 to help build a privacy fence around the back yard of her home, and Walker Landscape and Fence, LLC, has offered to build it and charge her only for materials. A Lowe’s store in Rome agreed to give Wesolowski the materials for the fence at cost.

By the end of the first day, more than $400 had been donated to Braveheart’s fence fund on GoFundMe.com.

“I cried for three days straight, probably because it just blows my mind,” Wesolowski. “I know people give money all the time to charities but a dog just hits people right in the heart.”

Dogs Deserve Better,the Virginia rescue now heaquartered in Michael Vick’s former house, donated $200. About 60 other donors gave money to the fund. Wesolowski said she wants to have a plaque with a list of donors put on the fence.

Braveheart has a scar on his neck, but whoever is responsible for it hasn’t been arrested. The Animal Rescue League has offered a $2,500 for information that leads to an arrest and conviction.

“I just can’t see how anybody could hurt a creature like this,” Wesolowski said. “He’s such a nice dog.”

(Photos: Braveheart’s Facebook page)

From Washington’s Olympic Peninsula comes the story of Harley — a Chihuahua found on the side of a logging road with his throat slit.

The dog, bearing a four-inch gash on his tiny throat, was found Feb. 2, bleeding on the side of a road west of Port Angeles by Monte Mogi, a 75-year-old, Harley Davidson-riding, retired Air Force master sergeant.

Mogi took the dog to veterinarian Dr. Charles Schramm of Port Angeles, who threaded tight a 4-inch open slice across the center of the dog’s throat, according to the Peninsula Daily News

The cut appeared to be intentional. By slitting the dog’s throat, “maybe they thought they were euthanizing it,” said Schramm, adding that he’d never seen a similar injury.

Mogi paid the dog’s $464 veterinary bill, then called his daughter, a veterinary technician, and she drove the dog — dubbed Harley by then — back to his house. Already having eight dogs on his property, Mogi called Nancy Woods, who had cared for Mogi’s wife before her death.

Nancy and her husband Herb, though they’d sworn off dogs after their last one died,  offered to take in Harley — even though he appeared traumatized and was terrified of children.

Once Harley recuperated, they planned to find him a new owner. In mid-February they handed Harley over to a new family. The next day, they asked for him back.

“I had bonded with him,” Nnancy Woods said. “I was terrified for him. My heart just hurt for the trauma he had been through. I felt like he had been with us for two weeks, and then he was uprooted again. I felt horrible about that.”

Now Harley has the run of the Woods family’s rural property, which he shares with Bob, a rescued cat who’s larger than him. He’s doing well, the Woods say, though he’s timid, shakes when nervous and can’t really bark. He starts coughing when he tries to do so. 

Last weekend, the Woods reported, Harley slept under the covers with Nancy’s 7-year-old granddaughter.

Seems he’s beginning to realize that, however evil some of them might be, there are some good humans out there, too.

(Photo: Peninsula Daily News)

A Pennsylvania woman was charged with animal cruelty and a weapons offense after she slit a dog’s throat Sunday night during an argument with her fiancé at his family’s home in Union Beach, N.J., authorities said.

Michele Milford, 35, of Scranton, was being held in the Monmouth County jail in Freehold in lieu of $10,000 bail, according to the Newark Star-Ledger.

Victor “Buddy’’ Amato, chief animal cruelty officer for the Monmouth County SPCA, said Milford and her fiancé argued during a party. During the dispute, she went into a laundry room and slit the throat of the family’s dog — twice.

While waiting for authorities, partygoers tried to slow the bleeding by pressing T-shirts and other items of clothing to the neck of the dog, a two-year-old Jack Russell terrier named Penelope.

The dog was rushed to the Red Bank Animal Hospital where she was scheduled to undergo surgery today.

Amato said Milford used a push knife, a two-inch blade with a T-handle designed to be grasped in a fist so the arrow-like blade protrudes from between the knuckles.

Amato said he did not know the reason for the argument, but it apparently had nothing to do with the dog.

The charges against Milford are fourth-degree offenses. The animal cruelty charge would be upgraded to a third-degree offense, punishable by a possible jail sentence, if the dog dies from her injuries, Amato said.