ohmidog!

I’ll let you decide how much of this story to believe.

A basset hound named George, while no one was home, became entangled in a telephone wire, started choking, and somehow managed to dial 999 (the UK’s version of 911).

Hearing his gasps, emergency operators sent police to the home in West Yorkshire, where he was freed.

We’ll point out this report appeared in The Sun, a troubled tabloid that not everyone considers the UK’s most reliable source of news.

And we’ll point out that when we said dialed, we meant dialed. It was one of those old dialy phones that George, in his desperation, somehow mastered.

(You can click on the link above to see some copyrighted photos of George, and the telephone. The basset in the photo above is Mac who lives in Texas and, despite his outfit, does not have super powers.)

The Sun reports that George, about two years old, knocked the phone to the floor and got entangled in the wire, managing to get it wound around his neck.

“And he panicked so much he incredibly managed to ring 999 as he pawed at the phone trying to free himself.

“The emergency operator alerted police who dashed to the empty home of driving instructor Steve Brown and his daughter Lydia, 18 on Saturday night.”

A neighbor, Paul Walker, also went into the home and “ripped the phone apart to wrench the wire from George’s throat.”

“Incredibly you could see where his paw print was on the phone to ring 999 — he literally saved his own life,” Paul is quoted as saying.

A Labrador retriever in Newton, Mass., was killed when it came in contact with a downed wire while being walked by its owner.

The dog’s owner, and a neighbor’s dog she was also walking, also received shocks, according to a report in the Boston Herald.

Police responded to a report of a woman screaming, said spokesman David Procopio.

“Sadly, both dogs either sniffed or touched or put their mouth on or stepped on the line,” he said. “They received an electrical shock.”

The woman’s dog died at the scene after touching the wire, Procopio said, and the neighbor’s dog ran home.

The woman, whose name was not released, told police she also received a shock when she tried to move the dogs away from the wire. She declined medical treatment.

A utility spokeswoman said a large tree branch had taken down two, 2,400-volt wires and that an investigation is underway into why the protective device on one of them did not work properly.

Downed wires aren’t the only electrical hazards to dogs and their walkers. Street fixtures and other malfunctioning above ground electrical equipment — even when they don’t looked damaged — have shocked and killed both.

You can learn more about the phenomenon at the website, Streetzaps.

Authorities seized about 500 dogs being housed in wire crates and pens in Montague County, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The Montague County Sheriff’s Department served warrants Tuesday morning at the 1,200-acre property near Bowie after complaints about the animals’ living conditions, said Sandy Grambort, a supervisor with the Humane Society of North Texas.

Grambort said the operation has been the subject of complaints for as long as 10 years, but in the past none of them have been able to be verified.

The property owners sold puppies to the public on the Internet and through newspaper ads.

Grambort said there were at least 25 different breeds on the site, but most were small breeds.

Some of the dogs were kept in wire crates that were double stacked in a series of outbuildings. Dogs were also kept in outdoor pens and kennels. Some of the animals had sores, open wounds and skin conditions in need of treatment, she said.

Chesapeake Energy donated use of a 4,000-square-foot warehouse in the Fort Worth stockyards to temporarily house the animals, and PetSmart Charities donated several hundred dog crates, dog food and water bowls. Volunteers with United Animal Nations will help care for the dogs.