LOVELAND – Any pet owner will tell you that when you let a dog into your home, you let them into your heart as well.

The McDonald family did that with a 6-month-old German Shepherd named Nala and quickly fell in love with the dog. It made for some difficult moments when the dog became ill soon after.

“Shortly after that we started seeing she was vomiting all over the house,” Christine McDonald, owner of the dog, said.

Nala simply couldn’t keep food or water down, became weak and started running a fever.

Veterinarians couldn’t determine what was wrong until they did an X-ray of the dog’s esophagus and diagnosed Nala with canine megaesophagus.

Animals with megaesophagus have muscles in the esophagus that fail and are unable to propel food or water into the stomach.

Without some form of help, the prognosis for these animals is not good.

“They either starve to death over a long period of time, a slow starvation because they never get the nutrition, or they die of aspiration pneumonia,” McDonald said.

The McDonald family found a possible solution for Nala on a website offering support for dogs with canine megaesophagus: http://www.caninemegaesophagus.org/.

The website provided information about a contraption called a Bailey Chair, which puts dogs in an upright position for them to eat. Gravity helps the food and water move to the dog’s stomach.

The McDonalds built a chair based on the Bailey Chair and Nala has been eating in it for the last three years. Nala is now very healthy, energetic and weighs 80 pounds.

Nala does have to stay in the high chair for 25 minutes after she finishes eating to allow the food to reach the stomach. She is so comfortable in the high chair that she typically falls asleep during this time.

The McDonalds say it is a small inconvenience for the love and enjoyment they get from Nala’s companionship.

“I think anyone who has an animal, if you choose to have an animal we fall in love with them and they’re part of your family,” McDonald said. “I mean, you’d do anything to keep a family member alive and it is the same thing with her.”

“We sent him off to a vet,” where they will perform a necropsy on the dog, said Moore Police Officer Jeremy Lewis.

According to police, Bak, a 5-year-old German shepherd, was last seen Friday night in a kennel on the property of his handler, Sgt. Kerri Andrews. Someone removed the lock on the security pen and either took the dog or allowed him to escape, police said.

“Someone let him out, but we don’t know who,” Lewis said. “We are still investigating.”

A police officer found Bak’s remains the following day more than a mile away, near Interstate 35 in Moore. The location was within the Oklahoma City Metropolitan Area. According to Lewis, there was obvious trauma to Bak’s body.

For three years, Bak worked for the police department, tracking suspects, conducting building searches and sniffing out narcotics. He was one of two K-9s on the force and was considered a member of Andrews’ family, police said.

While police are still trying to determine what exactly happened to Bak, authorities do suspect foul play.

“[He] was inside a kennel, inside a backyard, inside a gated neighborhood, so someone basically had to let him out of three things,” Lewis said.

It is not uncommon for someone to target a police K-9, but Russ said it occurs less today than it has in years past.

“When we first started getting involved with dogs finding narcotics, there were several cases where dogs who found large stashes of narcotics had bounties put on them,” Russ said.

According to Lewis, police are not aware of anyone who wanted to harm Bak. If a suspect is identified, he or she will be charged. Causing the death of a police dog in Oklahoma is a felony offense.

Anyone with information on Bak’s disappearance and death is asked to contact Moore police at 405-793-5171.

Natasha Sergent gets a hug from 16-month-old german shepherd Soul.

It’s not easy putting a dollar value on a friendship but for New Zealander Natasha Sergent, it’s about $37.

That is how much it cost to have her prized 16-month-old German Shepherd Soul microchipped – a device the size of a grain of rice which helped reunite owner and pooch this week.

Soul went missing from Sergent’s Wainuiomata, New Zealand home on Sunday, only to be found in Ngaruawahia, New Zealand a day later and 540km (300 miles) away.

Sergent was phoned by Waikato New Zealand District Council staff on Monday morning and told Soul was picked up while wandering the township. “When they said Soul was in Ngaruawahia the first thing I said was, `where the hell is that?’.”

Sergent then jumped into a car with partner Richard Robert and made the 7 ½ hour trek.

“I didn’t even brush my teeth or anything, our priority was getting Soul back. Whoever took her should think about what it would be like if they had a child and someone put them in a car and drove off. It’s essentially kidnapping. She’s my baby.”

Sergent planned to report the alleged theft to Wainuiomata police and encouraged anyone who saw people with Soul to contact the council.

Soul, a pedigree, won an award at the Eukanuba National Dog Show in Feilding, New Zealand last year. Sergent declined to say how much Soul was worth but believed she was stolen as “bait” for illegal dog fights.

“We’re just thankful she was microchipped. Without it we wouldn’t have got her back. We spent all of Sunday looking for her and in my heart I knew she hadn’t just wandered off. She’s a little ADHD but she’s a great dog. She’s definitely got a big dinner waiting for her at home.”

SPCA national president Bob Kerridge said microchipping had resulted in many happy reunions.

“It’s the great advance we’ve made over the last five years in animal welfare because microchipped dogs are able to be identified immediately with their true owner even if a dog is stolen and goes to a completely different part of the country.”

Kerridge said German Shepherds were not typically associated with illegal dog fights and he suspected Soul was stolen for breeding, not dog fighting.

Thomas Paul O’Malley, 31, was charged with second-degree murder after Morgan Mackey, 26, was found dead at the home the pair shared. Mackey had been shot in the chest.

O’Malley was arrested outside the residence about 2 a.m. Monday without incident.

O’Malley and Mackey were arguing when the dog, a German Shepherd-Doberman mix, bit O’Malley on the arm. O’Malley aimed a gun at the dog, according to witnesses interviewed by police. Mackey was shot in the chest when she tried to keep the dog from getting shot. The dog was not injured.

O’Malley is in custody under a $260,000 bond. His first court appearance is Wednesday.

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files

This latest study used family dogs including German and Australian Shepherds and a Labrador Retriever, which were given special training over an 11-week period to identify volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the breath of patients.

The researchers worked with 220 volunteers, including patients with lung cancer at early and advanced stages, patients with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and healthy volunteers. The dogs took part in a number of tests to see if they could reliably distinguish compounds in the breath of lung cancer patients and even if they smoked.

The dogs were asked to sniff glass tubes containing cotton impregnated with samples of breath from those taking part in the study and had to lie down if they detected a VOC from a lung cancer patient.

The dogs successfully identified 71 samples with lung cancer out of a possible 100. They also correctly detected 372 samples that did not have lung cancer out of a possible 400.

“In the breath of patients with lung cancer, there are likely to be different chemicals to normal breath samples and the dogs’ keen sense of smell can detect this difference at an early stage of the disease,” said study leader Thorsten Walles of Schillerhoehe Hospital in Germany where the study was conducted.

“It is unfortunate that dogs cannot communicate the biochemistry of the scent of cancer,” said thoracic surgeon and fellow researcher Enole Boedeker. Boedeker also said the dogs “were very excited by the ‘game’ and were rewarded by treats when they got it right.”

Previously, research and anecdotal reports suggested dogs, usually Labrador Retrievers and Portuguese Water dogs, can sniff out bladder, skin, lung, breast and ovarian cancers.

Lung and breast cancer patients are known to exhale patterns of biochemical markers on their breath, which can be traced to tumors which exude tiny amounts of chemicals not found in healthy tissue.

Trained dogs have also picked up skin cancer melanomas by sniffing skin lesions, while even domestic pets have raised the alarm with agitated behavior that led their owners to seek medical advice.

Professor Stephen Spiro, deputy chairman of the British Lung Foundation and lung cancer specialist, said, “A dog is said to be a man’s best friend and this breakthrough could show that our canine counterparts could offer more than companionship.”

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files

Kimberly Nizato, a Bellflower, California resident accused of nearly starving her dog to death, was sentenced Monday to a misdemeanor count of animal cruelty.

Defense attorney Andrew Stein successfully argued to Judge Robert J. Higa that the District Attorney Office’s case did not meet the standard for a felony conviction.

Higa sentenced the 27-year-old to thirty days in county jail with two days suspended, three years of probation. She also will pay restitution of $2,034 and court fees.

“I make no excuse for what my client did,” Stein told the judge. “But I believe this was a crime of omission not commission.”

Nizato did not surrender to serve her time but instead was ordered by Higa to work on getting her restitution paid.

Ironically, Nizato was a full-time kennel assistant at an Irvine California veterinary hospital when she, with help from her sister, surrendered her severely emaciated dog to an acquaintance last spring. The 3-year-old German Shepherd weighed 37 pounds, and veterinarians said he had eaten dirt and rocks to survive.

Nizato was arrested April 16, 2010. She pleaded no contest to felony animal cruelty June 28.

German Shepherd Rescue of Orange County agreed to pay for the dog’s care and named him Courage. After weeks of round-the-clock care and constant feedings, the dog made a full recovery and now lives with Lisa Whiseant, the woman who took the dog to medical care last spring.

Whiseant, a Huntington Beach, California resident, submitted an impact statement to the court, which was read into evidence by Deputy District Attorney Jennifer Bainbridge.

“Courage has moved on. He is a healthy, joyous, 92-pound dog that spends his days playing with toys, his shepherd gal pal, and his wading pool. He harbors no ill effects and is now in perfect health,” Whiseant wrote. “His temperament is loving and forgiving.”

“He is loved, adored, protected and thankfully will have a happy life after returning from the brink of death.”

Stein was pleased with Higa’s decision to reduce the felony to a misdemeanor but said county jail would be a wakeup call for his client.

“I think it’s a good jolt,” he said.

Stein said the mystery of why his client let her dog go without food for so long would remain.

“We’ll never really know the why,” he said.

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files

A Riverside, California animal-rights group is offering a $500 reward in the fatal wounding of a German Shepherd puppy with a crossbow.

The ASK Foundation, a nonprofit group that works with the city/county animal shelter, is hoping someone will come forward with information leading to an arrest.

A security guard found the 6-month-old dog with an arrow lodged in its side around noon Wednesday at La Sierra University. Officials took the dog to the Western Riverside County/City Animal Shelter.

Veterinary staff tried to stabilize the dog, giving it pain medication and antibiotics, but were unable to save the animal.

“He was bleeding from his nose, and he was having difficulty breathing,” Eileen Sanders, a veterinary technician, said. “His right-side lung was either filled with blood or had collapsed.”

The dog, which had no identification, was then euthanized. Authorities do not know if the animal had gone onto the campus after being injured or whether it had been injured at the university.

“We’re a big organization. We come across some heinous things,” Riverside County Animal Services spokesman John Welsh said on Thursday. “But this is one of the ones that really make you shake your head. It’s malicious and disgusting … and does make you ask the question, ‘Why?’”

Anyone with information is asked to call the shelter at (951) 358-7387.

Story by Elaine Furst for Dog Files