ohmidog!

Barkitecture Houston, a two-day fundraiser that features some innovative interpretations on that old standard, the dog house, will begin Oct. 26.

This year’s benefit, for Pup Squad Animal Rescue, promises to be bigger than ever, with more than 20 dog house designs being featured, along with a full slate of activities for dogs and humans.

The fundraiser calls on local artists, designers and architects to create stylish and functional dog houses, which are then sold at auction. It’s in its fourth-year running, according to the Houston Press.

Last year’s event brought in $18,000 for the animal rescue group.

“Houston is definitely a dog town, but there’s also a huge problem of overpopulation,” said Julie Landry, co-founder of Pup Squad. “It’s just a matter of getting the message out, to spay and neuter your pets.”

This year, the festivities kick off with a “yappy hour,” on Friday, October 26. On Saturday, the dog houses will line the two blocks of the Houston Pavilions. Attendees can bid on their favorites, or buy them for $500. Judges will select the “Best in Show.”

The Houston Press previewed this year’s entries, which included a giant rescue chopper that  lights up, a doghouse with a roof drainage system that collects water, and a colorful fan of a dog house that folds up like a briefcase.

We’re pretty sure none of them, though, have what a dog house in Houston needs most — air conditioning! 

Here’s where you can find more information.

(Photos: Some of last year’s entries; Rachel Bohanan / Houston Press)

Mention “dog” and “roof,” or Google them for that matter, and the first thing that comes up is usually Mitt Romney.

But delve and/or scroll some more, and you can find Axel and Bandit, two dogs on opposite sides of the Atlantic for whom the roof — house not car — has become almost a second home.

Axel the Newfoundland-Labrador is from New Walsham, Norfolk, and he sits on the top of thatched roofs while his owner Richard Haughton works on them.

Haughton says Axel started climbing onto roofs five years ago. While Axel can climb up the ladder mostly on his own, Haughton carries him back down.

Then there’s Oklahoma City roofer Billy Cobb and his “roofer dog” Bandit, who seems even more at home on the ladder, and on the roof.

We pass both along with the standard don’t-try-this-at-home warning.

As a child, I had a recurring dream about getting sucked into an escalator: If that grate at the bottom (or top, if you’re going up) managed to gobble up all those stairs, I reasoned, it could surely flatten me out as well.

That — though he didn’t disappear like a pancake — is sort of what happened to Kei, a shiba inu from Illinois, while on vacation with his owner in Toronto.

Scott Thisdale of Wadsworth, Ill.,  and his two 7-year-old shiba inus were on their way to a local park, via subway, when Kei’s paw got caught in the grate of a  escalator.

His injuries — all fixed up now — earned him the title of “Most Unusual September Claim” by Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. (VPI). The company picks the most unusual claim every month, then selects one of those to receive its annual  VPI Hambone Award.

Kei and Midori, were riding up a subway escalator when Kei’s paw got caught in the grate at the top.

“He didn’t yelp or cry, even though it must’ve been painful. I didn’t realize anything had happened until he started licking his nails,” said Thisdale. “That’s when I noticed he was bleeding.”

A veterinarian sedated Kei and treated his wounds, described by VPI as “nail bed avulsions and lacerations on the pad of his left, hind paw.” Kei got some stitches and had his nail bed vessels cauterized during a six-hour visit at the animal hospital.

Kei’s escalator incident was one of more than 80,000 claims received in the month of September by VPI, the nation’s oldest and largest provider of pet health insurance. It was selected by VPI employees as the most unusual of the bunch.  

Honorable mentions in September included a Newfoundland that tangled with a moose; a Labrador retriever that suffered deep lacerations from a run-in with a water spigot; and a Papillon that had its tail caught in a groomer’s Dremel, a rotary tool used for trimming nails.

All pets considered for the award made full recoveries and received insurance reimbursements.

VPI, which insures more than 485,000 pets nationwide, established the VPI Hambone Award in 2009. It’s named in honor of a VPI-insured dog that got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while waiting for someone to rescue him.

It was first awarded to Lulu, an English bulldog who swallowed 15 baby pacifiers, a bottle cap and a piece of a basketball.

VPI says publicizing unusual pet insurance claims helps educate the public about the unexpected mishaps that can affect household pets — and what happened to Kei is a good example of that.

Rare as it may sound, it isn’t all that unusual. Escalators grates and claws are a dangerous combination. Some escalators warn people to carry their dogs. Some don’t permit dogs.  Guide dogs have to be trained to use them.

Even if you’re not phobic, when you’re with your dog, it’s best to take the stairs.

(Photo of Kei, courtesy of his owner and VPI)

A Great Dane named Cooper — stepped on by his mother as a puppy — has gotten rid of his limp, thanks to a procedure that, in effect, stretched his bones.

Cooper was only 11 weeks old, and unwanted by the breeders who produced him, when Sally Stoffel adopted him through a rescue organization in Boulder.

She took him to Colorado State University’s Veterinary Teaching Hospital, where small animal orthopedic surgeon Ross Palmer came up with a plan to repair the dog’s badly damaged right rear leg.

Palmer straightened and lengthened Cooper’s tibia using an orthopedic device not available in the U.S., and generally only used on humans.

The device, loaned to Palmer by an Italian colleague, permitted him to correct the deformity, then gradually stretch the bone as it healed, allowing it to catch up with the growing dog’s other limbs.

The device had to be adjusted daily, and Cooper spent months recovering.

The results were unveiled Monday, when the 130-pound dog bounded into an exam room at the university.

“For this to be successful, you certainly have to have the right technique,” Palmer told the Denver Post. “But you also have to have the right owner and the right dog. And in this case, we did.”

Stoffel said Cooper spent a month laying on his blanket, but when the treatment was finished, his tibia had grown about three inches as a result of corrective surgery and use of the device.

Cooper, now nearly 11 months old, appears to be healing well, and is walking  normally on all four feet. Because he’s still growing, he might eventually require a prosthetic device or a second bone-lengthening procedure, Palmer said.

The treatment required 11 visits to the CSU vet hospital, and Stoffel estimated that she has spent about $7,000.

(Photo by V. Richard Haro / Fort Collins Coloradoan)

A Labrador retriever who ate a beehive – bees included – has been named winner of this year’s “Hambone Award” an insurance company’s annual tribute to the pet with the most unusual insurance claim.

Veterinary Pet Insurance Co. (VPI), the nation’s oldest and largest provider of pet health insurance, chose 12 nominees for the honor – all selected from claims filed by clients. More than 3,000 people voted online to pick the winner.

Ellie lives in Santee, California, and the beehive was just the latest in a long line of items she has consumed in her young life – from wooden toy train tracks to laptop computer keys.

On top of the hive, and its thousands of inhabitants, Ellie also consumed pesticide – for the hive had recently been sprayed. On the plus side, that meant the bees she consumed were already dead. On the down side, the pesticide made her upset stomach even worse. She made a full recovery.

Ellie’s owners, Robert and Sandra Coe, will receive a bronze trophy in the shape of a ham as well as a gift basket full of doggie toys and treats, VPI announced this week.

The VPI Hambone Award is named in honor of a VPI-insured dog that got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire Thanksgiving ham before someone opened the door and found the dog inside, with a mild case of hypothermia.

This year’s second place honors went to Aubie, a border collie from Birmingham, Alabama, who wanted to meet (or eat) the mailman so badly he leapt through a closed living room window. The leap shattered the glass and left Aubie with a cut front leg that required 40 stitches.

“Aubie’s never been enamored with the mailman,” said owner, Sharman Martin.

Third place went to a West Highland white terrier named Darci, who attacked her owner’s running chainsaw. The chainsaw cut two small holes into Darci’s muzzle and she underwent five hours of surgery.

Additional nominees for the 2010 VPI Hambone Award included a boxer that chased and caught a moving delivery van by biting into one of its tires, a standard poodle with a taste for dirty diapers, and a Jack Russell terrier that suffered injuries from wrestling with a lizard.

All pets considered for the award made full recoveries and received insurance reimbursements for their medical care.

(Photo: Courtesy of VPI)

A West Highland terrier who attacked a buzzing chainsaw has recovered from her injuries and is now in the running for the Hambone Award, presented annually by Veterinary Pet Insurance.

Darci, a 2-year-old terrier, had a history of lunging at the vacuum cleaner and lawnmower, according to her owner, Barbara Abell, of Belleville, Ill. “She never actually touched them, but she would lunge at them,” Abell says.

Last month, though, Abell’s husband was using a chainsaw to cut up a fallen branch in the family’s backyard when Darci lunged and bit the running saw. Abell rushed Darci to an emergency clinic, where she received four stitches and was sent home.

“By the next day, she was back to her feisty self,” said Abell, who advised pet owners not to assume their pets will keep their distance from dangerous equipment — even if they always have.

Darci’s onwers filed a claim with VPI, their insurer. Of more than 8,000 claims received in June by VPI, Darci’s was judged the most unusual of the bunch. As a result, Darci’s in the running for the  2010 VPI Hambone Award.

Each month, VPI employees nominate the most interesting claim submitted. In August, the public will vote on line for the winner of the Hambone Award, named after a dog  that got stuck in a refrigerator and ate an entire Thanksgiving ham while waiting for someone to find him.

The dog was eventually found, with a licked-clean hambone and a mild case of hypothermia. Like all dogs nominated, he recovered fully.

Petfinder.com has announced its annual ranking of the 10 most popular names for adoptable pets in 2009.

For the third year in a row, “Buddy” and “Max” came in at first and second for dogs, with “Lucy” and “Smokey” topping the list of cat names.

While many of the most common names have remained consistent year-to-year, there was one new name turning up on the list for both cats and dogs – “Bella.”

The top 10 dog names were: 1. Buddy; 2. Max; 3. Daisy; 4. Lucy; 5. Charlie; 6.  Bella; 7. Molly; 8. Jack; 9. Sadie; 10. Lady.

The top 10 cat names: 1. Lucy; 2. Smokey; 3. Midnight; 4. Bella; 5. Molly; 6. Daisy; 7. Oreo; 8. Shadow; 9. Charlie; 10. Angel.

Petfinder.com is also sharing its favorite quirky and unusual names of the year, selected from more than 170 submissions received via Facebook and Twitter.  Here are their favorites:

Shyanne Thailand Moo Goo Guy Pan, Mr. Tomfoolery Scardeycat Eliot, Rusty Buckets, KeelHaul, Too Fancy for You, Angry Donut, Maple Syrup, Hoseclamp, Prince Xavier Binxley, Hoku-ho’okele-wa’a.

“While funny names are always a big hit, we are also seeing a trend of pet parents giving their furry friends middle names, such as ‘Sunshine Ray,’ ‘Roxanna Bobanna Little’ and ‘Madison Wisconsin,’ suggesting that these animals are more like family members than family pets,” said Betsy Saul, the co-founder of Petfinder.com.

Petfinder.com is an online, searchable database of animals that need permanent homes, compiled from 12,900 animal shelters and adoption organizations across the USA, Canada and Mexico.

Can a dog’s water bowl, sitting under a bright sun on a wooden deck, work like a magnifying glass and start a fire?

Apparently, if it’s made of glass, yes — at least that’s what firefighters in Bellevue, Washington suspect. Investigators blamed a house fire Sunday on the family dogs’ partially filled glass water bowl.

“It’s very unusual, but it’s not unheard of,” Lt. Eric Keenan, the department’s community liaison officer told the Seattle Times.

The 11-inch-diameter bowl was elevated above the wooden deck in a wire stand, Keenan said. “There was nothing else in that area that could be identified as a fire source — no smokers, no electrical devices.”

No one was home when the fire started. It destroyed the deck and badly burned the adjacent kitchen. The family’s two dogs were both apparently unhurt, Keenan said.

Debbie Dalton’s Chihuahua is buzzing — and she has no idea why.

Frankie emits what sounds like high-pitched radio signals from his ears, the Associated Press reports.

Dalton’s home in Geneva, Ohio has eleven dogs, but Frankie, she says, stands out from the others, something she realized a couple of months ago.

“Frankie’s walking along the back of the sofa and I got closer and closer and I said ‘Oh my goodness …it’s the dog that’s buzzing.’”

Dalton says the noise doesn’t seem to bother Frankie, and it helps her when she loses track of Frankie outside. All she has to do is listen.

Her vet has no idea what the problem is, says Dalton, who’d like to see it solved.

“(When) he’s sleeping facing me, I have to move because i can hardly hear the TV.”