Ohmidog!!! This is it -- the last blog entry (from me anyway) on the Baltimore Sun "Mutts" blog.

I don't know what the newspaper's plans are for the blog.

My plans for me, though, involve leaving the paper as of today, writing a book and continuing a dog blog of my own.

If you wish to check it out, you can visit Ohmidog.com. (I'm the master of at least one domain now.) If you wish to reach me, you can send an email to muttsblog@verizon.net.

Thanks for the 376,313 visits you paid in the past year. Thanks for you astute comments, and your wacky ones as well. Thanks for letting me ramble on -- now and then -- about my own dog, Ace.

But thanks, most of all, for caring about animals -- and especially to those of you who take that compassion and turn it into action.

This video (and, no, that's not me singing to a litter of boxers) seemed a fitting goodbye.

In a way, and I mean this respectfully, you've been a lot like my dog, Ace -- you've been loyal, there for me when I need you, you've made me laugh, you've made me feel more secure. And I don't even have to clean up after you.

Just like Ace, you've made my life much richer. Thanks.

Oh heck, let's hear it one more time.

Posted by John Woestendiek at 12:45 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)
        

A group of children watched yesterday as "Thor," a 3-year-old Chesapeake Bay retriever, sprung from a running board into a pool of water during the practice period for the DockDogs Big Air Wave competition at the 21st annual Harford County Farm Fair held at the Equestrian Center in Bel Air.

DockDogs sponsors regional, national and international dock jumping performance sport for dogs. It got started as a "filler" event during the 2000 ESPN Outdoor Games. Despite low expectations it took a giant leap to popularity.

In 2002 DockDogs was established as a company, and this year it is holding more than 100 events worldwide.

(Sun photo by Lloyd Fox)

Posted by John Woestendiek at 11:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)
        

Here on the last day of the Mutts blog -- at least the last day I will be associated with it -- we'll pay one last visit to the issue of mandatory spay/neuter laws, like the one proposed in Chicago that we mentioned yesterday.

The post drew a few comments, including this one from a guy named David, who said of the laws: "First they aren't designed to ease pet overpopulation -- they're designed to make it more and more expensive and difficult to own animals -- which is part of the radical animal rights agenda.

"Also, there isn't a pet overpopulation problem at all. Read Nathan Winograd's book -- "Redemption: The Myth of Pet Overpopulation" and you'll understand that it's simply a marketing issue and that there are plenty of adoption homes!"

Millions of euthanized animals, myself and reader Carey, disagree. But I'll let Carey respond. Here's what she wrote, quite eloquently, in our comments section:

"David, Are you for real?? Have you BEEN to an animal shelter? EVER?

"I have. Every day I get emails about dogs that are going to be euthanized WITHIN HOURS unless they can get adopted or into a foster home. Yesterday, in fact, I got one about three starved puppies with little chance of survival. They had just come into the shelter yesterday and desperately needed to get out into a home of some kind.

"And those animals lucky enough to get into a foster home, stay there for MONTHS waiting to be adopted into a permanent home. I know this because I've done rescue work with dogs for years.

"You and Nathan Winograd have no clue what you're talking about.

"The main problem in the U.S. is that most people are completely uneducated about pet ownership. They see a purebred lab in a LL Bean catalog and say "I want that!" Then they go to a puppy mill or breeder or online and have a dog shipped to them. What they don't know is that labs can be hyper for the first 4 years of their life and that lab ends up at a shelter after a year. That's just one example with one breed.

"This shelter I mentioned is in Baltimore city. I'd be glad to take you there anytime you like so you can see firsthand how there "isn't a pet overpopulation problem at all."

Posted by John Woestendiek at 10:35 AM | Permalink | Comments (7)