DOG

After a couple of weeks of nonstop jocks-as-jerks news, I'd just about had it with athletes. Whether it was our own bong-inhaling Olympic swimmer, or the New York Yankees' 'roid-injecting A-Rod, I was ready to swear off following the fortunes of these physically gifted yet mentally suspect sportsmen. But then, just in the nick of time, an unlikely champion came along to make me believe again. Waddling rather than striding to victory Tuesday night, on four short legs instead of two long and lithe ones, he was stumpy rather than studly.

The dog rarely barked. He never growled, and his teeth - until a vicious attack Saturday night - had been reserved for chewing food, his owners say. Chocolate - a caramel-colored pit bull a little more than a year old - was one of the most tranquil dogs Kenneth and Melissa Garrison had until, unprovoked, he snapped and nearly bit the nose off the couple's 1-year-old son. Two days after the attack, sitting in the living room where their child's blood...

dailypuppy.com What's the point? -- Prepare to be killed by cuteness. Professional-quality, reader-submitted puppy portraits are posted every day. What to look for --From forums to photos, daily puppy.com is a dog lover's paradise. The site invites readers to submit portraits of their dogs along with short biographies and, sometimes, videos. Readers can rate each canine's cuteness quotient on a scale of one to 11 dog biscuits. The site offers a widget so readers can add puppies to their own blogs and share the daily fix with friends.

Authorities are blaming miscommunication between police officers and an emergency dispatcher for sending an ambulance to the wrong address after Friday's pit bull attack on a young girl in Southwest Baltimore. As a result, paramedics didn't arrive at the scene until 18 minutes after they were first dispatched. By that time, a city sheriff's deputy had shot and killed the dog, and 7-year-old Kayla Mitchell lay bleeding on the street as police officers and onlookers made frantic calls to 911 seeking an ambulance, which had been dispatched to the 1800 block of Ramsay St. instead of the 1400 block, where the attack occurred.

NEW YORK-- --Champion mastiff George Bailee rests his massive head in a pool of jowls. His brow is furrowed. His eyes, in their deep pink pockets, stare straight ahead. He appears unimpressed by the yappy pomp of the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, ignoring the schnauzer braced against the gale-force winds of his groomer's blow dryer, and the toy fox terrier whose thighs have recently been polished with a toothbrush. Only when a piece of hot dog pokes through the bars of his cage does the Cockeysville mastiff stir.

Suddenly on September 6, 2007, HELEN C. SCHLEE's "Bambi" race with longevity ended as a result of cancer. Born in Baltimore, marrying the late Joseph Schlee. Helen invested her time and money into the Sylvan Dell, Joppatowne and Milford Mill Swim Clubs before retiring to her Florida home in 1971, but her lifelong passion was her dogs. Whether traveling to the vet a mile from home, or to Madison Square Garden to attend a dog show, her life was all about animals. Survived by Bambi are her son, Kenneth and daughter-in-law Debbie, son-in-law Bob Gamber; grandchildren, Jamie (Schlee)

Oli, one of three police dogs working for the Carroll County Sheriff's Office, was seriously cut Wednesday in a suspicious incident and will be off duty for two weeks, jail officials said.The American-bred German shepherd needed 32 stitches to close two lacerations caused by a razor blade from a utility knife that had been lodged in a wire fence outside the detention center, where the animal is exercised daily, said Lt. Col. George R. Hardinger, the warden.The 2-year-old female dog is assigned to jail security.

Frustrated by failed attempts by the Baltimore Police and Fire departments to rescue a cocker spaniel trapped under Pier Six since Tuesday, the general manager of an Inner Harbor restaurant plans to launch his own mission this morning.A four-hour rescue attempt failed yesterday when Fire Department divers, facing high tide and an approaching storm, refused to risk their lives for the black-and-white dog."They are not going underneath that pier and putting their lives in danger for a dog," said Robert Anderson, director of Baltimore Animal Control.

What is it about bad gifts at Christmas?What compels a seemingly rational person to walk into a store, spot a pair of Elvis salt and pepper shakers that play a tinny recording of "All Shook Up" when lifted, and exclaim: "Oh, Dottie would love this!"What spurs an individual to enter one of those nature stores at the mall, gaze at a Singing Bird Clock, which sounds the call of a different bird (Northern cardinal, house finch, blue jay, etc.) every hour, and pronounce: "This has Brad written all over it!"

"If you like dogs, you should read 'That Dog' by Nanette Newman. It is about a boy named Ben whose dog always gets into trouble. He eats everyone's food. I like this book because the pictures are so GREAT! One sad thing happens. Read the book to find out what happens to 'that dog.' "-- Kelly WallisHampton Elementary" 'My Father's Dragon' by Ruth Stiles Gannett is a book about a boy named Elmer Elevator. He found a dragon falling down from the clouds. The dragon's name is Mr. Drag. Elmer found lots of different animals.

Bay Theatre begins its eighth season with A. R. Gurney's 1995 comedy "Sylvia," about a middle-age man who brings home a stray dog to the empty nest he shares with his wife on Manhattan's Upper West Side. If instead of a year earlier, last season had closed with Edward Albee's 2002 play "The Goat or Who Is Sylvia?" about another middle-age male in crisis who found an animal irresistible, Bay would have had an amazing segue between seasons. Noting the similarity of themes, playwright Gurney explains on his Web site, "Greg's affection for Sylvia costs him his job and almost his marriage.

Attempted kidnapping reported by Jessup mother A woman told Anne Arundel County police that while she was waiting in her car Tuesday for the arrival of a school bus in Jessup, another woman picked up her 4-year-old son and tried to abduct him. Police said the youngster had been playing outside the car shortly before 12:30 p.m. in the 7800 block of Clark Road. A woman whom the boy did not know picked him up and began to walk away with him, according to police. The boy insisted on being put down, and the woman complied, police said.

Joey, a 6-year-old Brittany spaniel, was having the time of his life. He sprinted around the emerald expanses of the 2.7-acre Worthington Park Off-Leash Area on a recent visit, tracing a circuitous path through the manicured yet somewhat lumpy lawn. When Genie the English shepherd romped over, Joey switched into an impossibly higher gear. In the meantime, three dozen owners relaxed on scattered benches and chairs, enjoying a few moments of social time before the sun slipped below the park's wooded perimeter.

After a harrowing brush with thieves who took her dog and truck in West Baltimore, a woman was reunited with her pup Thursday morning in what shelter workers are calling "an impossible reunion." In town on errands, Amy Gaffney of Easton says she got lost Tuesday night in West Baltimore. The 46-year-old rolled down her window around Fulton Street to ask directions of some young men. "The next thing I know, his arm is in my car and he unlocks the door. I was so stunned, I didn't know what was going on."

When you work out of your home during the summer, you have to learn to tune out all sorts of sounds and activities that would be major distractions in a typical office setting. You might not think this would be too difficult, but picture yourself working away in a cubicle, only the person sharing it is practicing "Lady Madonna" over and over on the piano. It could be tricky to take your conference call. Better yet, what if one of your co-workers liked to stroll about, strumming a ukulele?

With the gray-green ocean waters lapping at the sand, the boardwalk that smells like french fries and caramel corn, the sunburned nights spent wearing flip-flops and sipping beer, the beaches of Maryland and Delaware are a summery siren call. But, not if you have a dog. In the height of the season, most of the quintessential beachiness - the popular resorts, Ocean City's boardwalk, the nightclubs, are, for the most part, off-limits to the four-legged kind. That's slowly changing. A recent survey by the Associated Press and Petside.

Two teenage twin brothers charged as juveniles with fatally burning a pit bull are being held without bail on new adult charges after police said they raided their Southwest Baltimore rowhouse and found guns and marijuana inside. Travers and Tremayne Johnson, 17, are each charged with possession of firearms, marijuana and drug paraphernalia, according to police and prosecutors. Court documents say the two were suspects in the dog burning last month, and their father confirmed that they are charged as juveniles with animal cruelty in the case.

Veda "Pat" Allen was certainly shocked, even disgusted, by what happened to Phoenix, the pit bull puppy doused with gasoline and then set on fire in Southwest Baltimore last month. But the aftermath shocked her more, as people in the city and around the country shed tears, signed petitions, raged on blogs and raised more than $26,000 to find the dog's killers. When her 22-year-old son was shot in the head in 1992 in what city police said was a motiveless crime, she wonders, where were these people with their outrage, their tears, their checks?

Baltimore police said they have charged two teenagers with dousing a young pit bull with gasoline and setting it on fire in West Baltimore last month, a case that sparked furor over animal cruelty and generated more than $26,000 in donations to find the culprits. Police canceled a morning news conference Monday to discuss the arrests, which occurred over the weekend, saying detectives were consulting with prosecutors. No additional details were provided. "The case is still very much open and under investigation, and we are working with prosecutors to go over evidence and bring this case forward," said Anthony Guglielmi, chief spokesman for the Police Department.

Ronan, an 18-month-old Belgian Malinois, bolted from his owner's grasp and charged across the open field toward a guy waving a stick and screaming, "Get that dog out of here." The dog lunged toward the man, bit into his arm and held on. "Good grip," said a man with a clipboard. As a judge for the Protection Sports Association, he made note of it as part of the dog's ability to take commands from his owner, ignore all distractions and hang on to a "decoy," a person outfitted in a thickly padded bite suit.