Puppy

A new program that redistributes shelter animals has left the Humane Society of Baltimore County atypically flush with yipping, yapping and springing small dogs and puppies. This weekend, 31 pups arrived at the Reisterstown shelter from rural Tennessee. Because that shelter was overflowing with animals and was prepared to euthanize them, the Humane Society agreed to take in the dogs. According to Heather Hart, the Humane Society's animal center director, the swap is a new initiative aimed to bring dogs from crowded Southern shelters to the North, where they're more in demand.

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?

President Barack Obama fulfilled a campaign promise to his daughters with their new puppy, but the decision to forgo a shelter dog is sure to leave some animal activists growling. Bo, a 6-month-old Portuguese water dog, will make his public debut at the White House on Tuesday after months of intense speculation about his arrival. The first pooch is a gift from Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, a Massachusetts Democrat who owns three Porties and wanted the Obamas to follow suit. The housebroken puppy, which has been undergoing extensive training in recent weeks, was named Charlie by his original owners, but first daughters Malia and Sasha rechristened him Bo in honor of their cousin's cat of the same name.

Anyone who snickers at talk of a dog's undying and unquestioning love, steer way clear of Marley & Me. But for all those enlightened souls who know just what I'm talking about, who have experienced the redemptive joy of coming home from a hard day at work feeling like the saddest sad sack in the universe, only to be greeted by a dog who just knows you're the best thing in the world, then this is the movie you've been waiting for. It understands....

* Frustrated about the difficulty of keeping their hands warm while texting, two British designers devised the Etre Touchy gloves - with only the tips of the thumb and index finger exposed. They're billed as "part normal pair of gloves, part fingerless pair of gloves," which cover your middle, ring and little fingers completely. They're available for about $22.50 at etretouchy.com. * Kidthing.com, a learning and entertainment platform for children ages 3-11, is another reminder that kids are growing up in a world much different from their parents'.

President-elect Barack Obama has promised change. He has also promised his daughters a puppy. With the right dog, he can make good on both. From Thomas Jefferson's briards to George W. Bush's Scottish terriers, the White House doghouse has been stuffed with austere purebreds. The 44th president appears destined for a different kind of dog. Perhaps he'll choose one from a shelter, where there are "mutts like me," he said yesterday at his first news conference, addressing both the weighty family dog issue and the economic crisis.

Bernann McKinney couldn't wait to see her dog again. Understanding why is easy: Booger was a pit bull she rescued from the street. Two months later, when McKinney was attacked by another dog, Booger rescued her, charging out of the house, jumping on the larger dog and diverting his attention long enough so that McKinney, who all but lost one arm in the attack and had the other damaged, could escape, steering her pickup truck with her elbows to the home...

Matt Fisher has walked Chari around the block a few times, taken her to play with another black Labrador mix, and walked her home. But something is missing. Finally, in front of Chari's Bolton Hill home, Fisher leads the dog into the garden. She sniffs, takes her time, and at last accomplishes her task. Fisher is triumphant. The walk was a success. When you walk dogs for a living, you take the victories where they come. Inside the house, Fisher leaves a note for Chari's owners, letting them know of their dog's achievement.

And now for the latest fraud from Nigeria - puppies. The Council of Better Business Bureaus and American Kennel Club issued a warning yesterday about fraudulent Web sites, MySpace postings and print ads asking people to help save puppies who are in desperate straits. The sites and ads usually show adorable bulldog puppies that have become stuck somehow in Nigeria or other countries and are offered free to new owners. A variation of the scheme is to offer the purebred English bulldogs - a particularly expensive breed - at vastly discounted prices.

Year of the Dog reinforces what dog owners already know: In a world where things are not always what they seem, the love of a good pooch is one of the few things we can count on. It's also a film about how pets bring out the unexpected in all of us, a notion riffed on by writer-director Mike White to comically poignant effect. The result may be too calculatedly smug for some tastes, a deadpan version of the old "Happiness is a Warm Puppy" wall plaques. But dog lovers will laugh, cry and rejoice that they're in the presence of a filmmaker who understands.