ohmidog!

With December just around the corner, brace yourself for some doggie Christmas miracle stories.

Dogs, of course, do amazing things all year round, but there’s a tendency this time of year for those stories to get told more often, and generally in a somewhat breathless and hyped up way that gives Christmas, rather than smart dogs, all the credit.

While we’ll hold off on proclaiming it a miracle, how this little dog survived a house fire in Tennessee is pretty amazing.

Abigail apparently took shelter in a crawl space beneath the floor, and, though the house was 90 percent consumed by flames, managed to survive long enough to be pulled out by a firefighter.

“You never see a house that has fully burned to the ground — and 90 percent of the home is gone, I mean it’s up in smoke –- and something lived,” firefighter Pat Boone told News Channel 11

Boone, who pulled the dog out, said firefighters were calling her Miracle, until they learned her name was Abigail.

Her owners, who lost everything else in the fire, were thankful that Abigail was found. “Houses can be replaced, clothes can be replaced; family and animals can’t,” one family member said.

Boone said community members are stepping forward to help the family. An anonymous donor is covering all of the veterinary expenses for Abigail, who’s expected to be fine.

A poodle mix struck by a Toyota Camry became wedged in the car’s grill and survived an 11-mile ride in Rhode Island.

“It’s the first time we’ve ever seen anything like this,” East Providence Animal Control Officer Will Muggle told East Bay Newspapers.

 ”Considering the speed the driver said he was going and the distance he traveled, for her to survive is definitely a miracle.”

Authorities said the Toyota was traveling about 50 miles per hour when the small dog — a poodle-Bichon Frise mix — darted in front of it. The driver said he had little time to react. Unsure whether his car had struck the dog, he stopped, got out, checked the front of the car, saw nothing and assumed the dog had run off. He continued on his way from Taunton to East Providence.

But the dog was there, stuck in the recessed air intake section just below the car’s front grill and above the car’s license plate frame. Eleven miles later, when another motorist told him at a stop light that there was a dog in his grill, the driver headed straight to the East Providence police station.

Animal control officer Muggle was called to the scene.

“It was difficult to get her out of there, not only because of how she was stuck in there, but because she was grabbing on pretty tight,” Muggle said.

“The driver of the car was pretty shaken up about the whole thing,” he added. “He came back the next day to check on her to make sure she was alright.”

The dog — she’s being called Lucky — was taken to the East Bay Animal Hospital and later transferred to Bay State Animal Hospital for additional testing.

Muggle said the dog had a concussion, a small cut above her eye and a slight tear in her intestine. She has recovered and been returned to the custody of animal control. A search for the dog’s owner is underway.

An electronic tracking device implanted under her skin indicated she may have at one point lived in Kentucky, but no registered owners were listed.

If no owner is found likely by the end of the week, the dog will be put up for adoption.

Anyone with information about the dog’s owner, or interested in adopting her, can call East Providence Animal Control at 401-435-7675 or 401-435-7676.

WSVN-TV –

A small dog who fell off Miami’s Brickell Avenue drawbridge as it was being opened was found alive and well the next day.

The mixed breed dog, wearing a pink sweater when she was thought to have plunged into the water, was found in a restricted area below the bridge. Bridge operators say the dog apparently landed on a cement slab.

David Bernstein stopped at the Brickell Avenue drawbridge Tuesday night and saw the dog going across it as it began opening.

He said he tried calling the dog back, and, along with other motorists, who were yelling and honking, tried to alert the bridge operator.

But the bridge continued rising and the dog continued across it.

The dog slid and appeared to have fallen into the Miami River.

Bernstein spent the next hour searching for the dog, without success. On Wednesday, he returned and talked to a drawbridge operator who checked the service areas under the bridge.

“And she said, the dog’s in there, five stories down,” Bernstein told the Miami Herald, “and I was just, I was blown away.”

The dog was taken to a veterinarian, who cleaned her up and pronounced her healthy. No owners have yet come forward.

A dog dragged by a pick-up truck down a northern California freeway is expected to survive, but has lost a leg.

Angie Porter and her 13-year-old son spotted the truck, and the dog behind it on a rope, while driving down Interstate 780 on April 19.

They followed it for nearly a mile, trying to catch up and honking the horn.

As the vehicle neared Glen Cove, the truck driver took the exit, and the rope around the dog’s neck broke. The dog flipped several times and then slammed into the off-ramp’s concrete wall

The driver didn’t stop.

Porter, a Pinole resident, stopped her car and ran to the dog, placing her coat over him.

A few minutes later,  Amy Dart, with the Humane Society of the North Bay, arrived and took the dog to All Creatures Veterinary Hospital, according to the Vallejo Times-Herald.

Animal control officials say they have few leads about the driver of the truck; Porter was so focused on the dog she did not take down the truck’s license plate number.

Freeway, who’s believed to be a purebred German shepherd, had his badly fractured right rear leg removed and was expected to be released to the humane society this week.

Peter Wilson, the humane society’s executive director, said the organization will pay the vet bill and put Freeway up for adoption after he recuperates.

“When I learned how sweet the dog is, even in excruciating pain, I felt this dog deserves a chance and shouldn’t suffer and lose its life because of the irresponsible individual who didn’t stick around afterward,” Wilson said.

The humane society has started a fundraiser for Freeway through its Maya Fund, created to help animals with medical issues.

At Benicia Middle School, where Porter works as a campus supervisor and her son, River, is enrolled, students and staff members are trying to raise money for Freeway by setting up donation cans around campus.

Anyone with information about the incident  is asked to call Vallejo Animal Control at 707-645-7906.

When her number was up — that number being 30 days — a stray black cat in the Salt Lake City area that went unadopted was placed in the gas chamber at West Valley City Animal Shelter.

Officials say the machine was working just fine, and pumped in the carbon monoxide like it was supposed to.

But when the cat, named Andrea, was removed, she still showed some signs of life.

So they put her in again.

After the second gassing, they checked for vital signs, pronounced her dead, put her in a plastic bag, and put that in a cooler.

But Andrea came back again.

“For whatever reason as time went on the cat came back to life,” said Aaron Crim, the shelter’s director of public relations.

The shelter workers decided not to try a third time. “It was just one of those things where they thought this cat obviously really wants to live,” Crim said. “Let’s give it a chance to find a permanent home.”

Andrea was cleaned up and taken home by Janita Coombs, a volunteer with the Community Animal Welfare Society

“She’s pretty tough, obviously,” Coombs told the Salt Lake Tribune. “She’s definitely got some will to live.”

Coombs is keeping the cat at her home until plans are finalized for a permanent adoption.

“When we first got her, she had some difficulty walking,” said Coombs. “When they found her hypothermic in the freezer she had vomited and defecated on herself, but she has since seemed to recover quite well … If you just look at her she looks perfectly healthy.”

No More Homeless Pets in Utah says about 30,000 animals were euthanized in the state in 2010; nearly 25,000 were adopted.

(Photo by Djamila Grossman / Salt Lake Tribune)

A sheriff’s deputy in Ohio County, Kentucky, was fired yesterday after allegedly beating an injured dog with a garden hoe — apparently in an attempt to put her out of her misery.

The dog, thought dead, was then buried, only to resurface a few days later — alive.

Ohio County Sheriff David Thompson informed Deputy Randy Taylor of his termination shortly before a news conference Tuesday morning, according to this report from WEHT

Thompson — despite reports that quote Taylor as saying he beat the dog because it “wasn’t worth the bullet” — said he didn’t think Taylor’s intention were cruel.

“Obviously Mr. Taylor is very disappointed,” said Thompson. “He’s very sorry about the situation. His intent, which I believe, probably was never to punish the animal or be cruel to the animal as such.”

Deputy Taylor had been suspended with pay over the June 28th incident, in which sources say a state transportation worker noticed an injured dog, apparently struck by a car, and called for a deputy.

When Taylor arrived, he allegedly began beating the dog with a garden hoe. The dog was then reportedly taken back to the garage and buried under a mound of dirt.

Several days later, the dog was discovered to still be alive. A transportation worker has also been fired in connection with the incident.

Sheriff Thompson said that Muhlenberg County Attorney Darris Russell is being brought in as a special prosecutor to review the case due to a conflict of interest in Ohio County.

While most news reports don’t mention whether the dog is still alive, a Facebook post indicates she is, and that she has been named Chance.

“I was fortunate to see ‘Chance’ today and I was truly shocked. Although they said she looked a hundred percent better, I couldn’t believe my eyes. I bent down to be close to her and she took a minute to find me. I believe her sight is gone in one eye and it looks like she might have trouble getting in focus. As soon as I got close, she gave me a kiss.

“Her little body is beaten, but her spirit not broken. She is very underweight and has multiple large dents on the top of her head where she was hit. They got her up for me to see and she cried very badly for a few seconds. She is really sore after all this (as to be expected).

“As I was there, the vet showed me something that I could not believe. She has a bullet lodged in her hip where she has been shot in the past. This is not made up and if I hadn’t seen it, well, let’s just say she gets more beautiful by the moment. As soon as she is out of danger of being exploited, I will post a picture for all to see. I for one, appreciate the overwhelming care that you all have shown for this helpless, wonderful dog.”

Lola, a long-haired dachschund who had been missing since a fire gutted her owner’s house a month ago, has turned up alive and, for the most part, well.

Terisa Acevedo initially thought that Lola had somehow escaped the blaze and was wandering her neighborhood in Hyde Park. She posted fliers and walked the neighborhood, but, as weeks passed, her hope dwindled.

On Monday, nearly 30 days after the fire, Acevedo, a 24-year-old EMT and Northeastern University student, returned to the house and heard a scratching noise at the front door.

She yelled out her pet’s name and, as neighbors joined in, ripped off the plywood that had been placed over the home’s entrance.

“It was a miracle,” Acevedo told the Boston Globe, hugging her dog at the Angell Memorial Animal Hospital, where Lola is being treated.

(Photo: By Brian Adams / MSPCA-Angell)

Here’s a pretty amazing story out of Sulphur, Oklahoma, about a dog who apparently was euthanized, declared dead and, the next morning, was found scurrying around the trash bin in which he had been dumped.

As a result of his tale of survival, hundreds have expressed interest in adopting Wall-e, as the three-month-old dog is being called.

Wall-e and his littermates were dropped off outside the animal shelter in Sulphur. Because all seemed seriously ill, shelter officials say, they were euthanized. After being pronounced dead by a veterinarian, they were all disposed of in a bin outside the shelter, which was scheduled to be emptied that night.

The next morning, though, Animal Control Officer Scott Prall looked in the bin and saw it still held its contents, including Wall-e, who was alive.

“He was just as healthy as could be,” Prall said.

Amanda Kloski of the Arbuckle Veterinary Clinic, took him in, and word about Wall-e, named after the movie robot, spread on Facebook, leading to hundreds of calls from people interested in adopting him.

The vet clinic said they would review the offers this week and choose a permanent home.

Both the clinic and the animal control officer say Wall-e and the others may not have been put to sleep at all if Murray County had a better animal shelter, according to KWTV.

It was like a scene from the Wizard of Oz, and it most likely left Alfie wondering what it was all about.

A silky terrier in Manhattan, swept off an 11th floor terrace by high winds, survived a five-story fall with only minor injuries.

Sarann Lindenauer, 67, had opened her terrace door to let in some air, left her apartment for five minutes and came back to find Alfie — a 4-year-old, 10-pound silky terrier — had vanished.

“I ran all over the house calling his name,” she told the New York Post. “I looked down on the plaza and onto the landing of the town houses.”

The dog was swept from the Independence Plaza complex on May 3 during a thunderstorm, landing five stories below, and 30 feet to the east, on a rooftop.

“It was like ‘The Wizard of Oz,’ and he was Toto,” said Jessica Gould, a neighbor who rescued Alfie.  Gould, who lives in a different tower of the complex, had been looking out at the storm from her seventh-floor window and spotted Alfie.

Gould retrieved the dog and brought him to the lobby.

“‘This is Alfie. Oh, my, God … He came from the 11th floor,” she recounted the doorman saying. Lindenauer was called and reunited with the dog, who  sustained only a few bruises and scratches and a cut lip.

“It had to be a horrible, horrible quick wind because he definitely doesn’t jump,” said Lindenauer, who added that Alfie no longer likes going out on the terrace.

A stray shih-tzu in Utah got hit by an outbound train, and hit by it again on its return route, then was rescued and taken home by the engineer.

“I saw this little guy between the rail,” said Fred Krause, a Utah Railway engineer, “and of course and it was too late to do anything about it… It breaks your heart. But there’s nothing you can do.”

Krause’s train, on its way to Kennecott, struck the dog Sunday. On his return trip to Midvale, he encountered the dog again, ABC 4 News reported.

It was as if the dog were playing a game of chicken with the train, he said.

“I’m flashing the lights, blowing the horn, trying to get him out of the rails,” Krause said. “And he just ran right down the rails at us. I tried to slow down, got it from 20 miles per hour to 15 miles per hour when we hit, thought for sure we killed him.”

The engineer was required to keep the train moving, but when he got off work, Krause, who has a shih-tzu of his own, went back to the scene to look for the dog.

“I took my flashlight and walked down the rails and saw a heap of fur and thought this is it,” Krause said. “I shined a light on him and he turned around and looked at me.”

Krause took the dog to the vet, then brought him home.

“If he can get along with Milo (his other shih-tzu) we might keep him,” Krause said. “If we can find the original owners we’ll give him back. Or if not we’ll find a home.”