When a 10-month-old papillon-poodle mix jumped off the roof of a New York City building and survived the fall, he was hailed as a miracle dog. But the puppy’s prognosis went from optimistic to dire in just a few days, and his family had to make the heart-wrenching decision Monday to put down their beloved dog, named Brooklyn.

“We’re all upset,” owner Diane Mella says. “I have three kids, and they’re all really attached to him. He was like my fourth child. The kids didn’t go to school today. We’re all here at the hospital to say our final goodbyes.”

On Friday, Brooklyn dashed out the door of his family’s lower Manhattan apartment as friends were leaving a doggie playdate. Brooklyn went up several flights of stairs, ran out onto the roof and off the ledge before anyone could catch him. The door to the roof had been left open by a contractor who was performing building maintenance.

The dog fell seven stories and landed on a second-floor vent of a neighboring building. In the darkness, owner Diane Mella saw her puppy “lying there on his stomach, just looking out.” She ran downstairs to try and get into the building next door when one of the residents came out with Brooklyn in her arms.

Veterinarians initially told the Mellas that Brooklyn was a young, healthy puppy, and though he had sustained broken ribs and a fractured spine, doctors thought he had a good chance of walking again if they could perform surgery on his back and put screws in his spine. But on Sunday, a CAT scan showed that the break in Brooklyn’s spine was larger than expected; he had lost sensation in his hind legs and had severe internal organ trauma. Significant financial considerations aside (the surgeries would have cost upwards of $7,000, in addition to the $2,000 already spent), doctors advised the Mellas to put Brooklyn down.

“He could spend hours at the dog run, just playing with any and every dog,” Mella says of the pet she had brought into her family when he was only 2 months old. The playful and loving dog couldn’t go a single city block without a stranger stopping to ask about him. “He was interested in every person and animal,” she says.

There is a small bright spot for the Mellas in this ordeal: In about a week’s time, a papillon named Precious will be giving birth to a litter of Brooklyn’s puppies. “We’re hoping everything goes well. We may end up with a Brooklyn Jr.”

She was one of hundreds of dogs rescued by authorities this past summer in an eight-state raid of dogfighters, the largest of its kind in U.S. history. But there was something striking about Fay the pit bull, who was found chained to a wooden box in Missouri: The 5-year-old dog was left with no lips and required serious medical attention.

Still, “she just loved people and that’s just amazing to me after everything that’s been done to her,” Gale Frey, the woman who took the pit bull under her care as she fought back tears following the dog’s death Dec. 28. “I call her my toothy girl. She just loved everyone that would pet her, come near her. We had her at a local fund-raiser here and she just had the time of her life. Her tail never stopped wagging.”

Fay came to Frey through the St. Louis area rescue group Mutts-n-Stuff, which she had founded with her husband Dave Melot, after the Humane Society of the United States and the Humane Society of Missouri saved the dog. Fay then underwent the surgeries she needed to repair her facial damage — and because of her amazing journey and easy temperament, the disfigured pit bull became the face of a recent HSUS 2010 Animal Survivor’s campaign.

Even on the day in July when she was rescued, dirty and chained to a box, Fay was as sweet-natured as ever. “Her teeth were showing and it dawned on them that her lips were gone, they cut her lips off,” she says. But “her tail was wagging and eyes were smiling. She was like, ‘Oh my gosh, you came to save me. Thank you. It’s about time you got here.’ ”

And save her they did. When Frey first laid eyes on the dog at a secret holding location in July, where the rescued animals were being held as court evidence, she knew that Fay was special.

“She would just melt into your body when you would hold her,” Frey recalls. “I knew I wanted to take her home to make a difference because she was a victim of dogfighting. And what the dog men did to her was just so cruel. I felt like we had to speak out. And I felt that she was the ’spokesdog’ to do that.”

The HSUS thought so, too, and funded $5,000 of Fay’s surgeries. The dog’s third and last surgery was successful, but afterward, as she was waking up, she suddenly went into cardiac arrest. A necropsy revealed it was caused by internal adhesions. “In her previous life, she probably took some blows to the gut, ” Frey says. “The scar tissue started twisting her intestines.”

Thankfully, Fay suffered no pain. “I was there, I wasn’t more than two feet from her [when she died],” she says. “She was waking up and her new face … and then she was gone. I guess it was her time.”

The Humane Society of Missouri also shared condolences. “We are proud to have been able to rescue her and are grateful for every wet toothy kiss she shared with us since her rescue,” they said in a statement on their Web site. “We love her and we will miss her greatly!”

The HSUS took the moment to remember all dogs trapped in fighting lives. “Her circumstance is a reminder to all of us about how cruel and barbaric dog-fighting truly is,” President and CEO Wayne Pacelle said in a statement. “I’ll think of Fay whenever I speak with a lawmaker about enacting stronger animal fighting laws or talk with at-risk young people about the horrors of dog-fighting, and I hope others are moved by her story, too.”

Though her life was filled with much physical pain, which Frey says the dog never showed (“Her love for wanting to be held and kissed overpowered any pain she had”), Fay’s quiet suffering will not be in vain. Frey is moving forward with a project she was planning to launch with Fay, called Phoenix House. It will serve as a halfway home for dogfighting survivors, where the rescued animals can be introduced to the normal comforts and activities of daily life in a house.

“When Fay came here, Fay never saw a television before. And the first time the washing machine went off, it scared the living daylights out of her. She ran and hid inside her crate and wouldn’t come of her crate for two days,” she recalls. “So the Phoenix House is a way for us to acclimate the dogs to indoor living and to kind of give them a head start on their new life.”

For Fay, her second chance only lasted five months, but now cremated, she’ll remain in a safe place: Her ashes will be placed in special box made by Frey’s vet. “She’ll be coming back home again,” Frey says.

To donate to the Phoenix House project, click here.

When Keith Alioto returned to his Baltimore home last Wednesday night, he found it had been ransacked and burglarized— and that his 4-month-old puppy Max, a 6-lb. Dachshund and German shepherd mix, was missing.

“I had come home first at 5:30 p.m. to play with Max and run him around the yard before I went out for dinner an hour later while my wife and six kids spent the evening at her mother’s house a few miles away,” Alioto, 41, says. “I left the house empty for four hours, and when I got back around 10:30 p.m., I saw we were robbed and our little Max was gone.”

Alioto, the IT director at a Baltimore stem-cell research company, noticed many items missing: a television, two computers, Christmas gifts, a PlayStation, video games and some small electronics around his work desk. And the dining room window was wide open.

“I noticed on the couch the cushion was up, so I thought Max had jumped over it,” Alioto continues. “So I looked under the couch where Max goes when we vacuum. He wasn’t there. So I looked everywhere for him, upstairs, in the back, you name it. Outside, I saw there was snow, but no dog tracks in it.”

Frantic, Alioto called friends, neighbors and the Baltimore police to report the incident. He had his family spend the night at his mother-in-law’s house so he could clean up the mess and continue searching for Max.

“On Christmas Eve, my older children (the kids range from ages 3 to 12) and I made flyers and put them up at vets’ offices, grocery stores and other posts around the area,” Alioto tells PEOPLEPets.com. “I called the three TV stations, and they all did stories. I even put Max and his photo up on Craigslist. So far we have had nothing but false alarms and no luck even finding the thieves.”

Max, a quiet and affectionate puppy, who likes to sit on the couch with his head on Alioto’s and the kids’ shoulders, is black with a brown and white chest and paws. He was not wearing a collar and rarely barks.

“We were not even looking for a pet when a friend’s dog had babies and gave us Max after we picked him out of the crowd in November,” he says. “We are all very upset and want him back. We will offer a reward for his return.”

The City of Mashpee will hear an alarming breed discriminatory bylaw at its Annual Town Meeting on October 19, 2009.

This disturbing bylaw includes claims that certain breeds have “a strong instinct for dominance” and a prey drive that results in “aggressive pursuit of . . . human children”. These statements made in Section 1 of the proposed bylaw are reckless and entirely unfounded. Even more appalling is subparagraph (i) under Section 4 of the proposed bylaw. It reads:

“In the event [a pit bull type dog has] a litter, the owner or keeper (i) must deliver the puppies to the Town Kennel for destruction. . . . Any pit bull puppies kept contrary to the provisions of this subsection are subject to immediate impoundment and disposal. . . .”.

According to this bylaw, all dogs that have the appearance of a certain breed of dog will be hunted down, and any offspring destroyed.

What are your thoughts on this issue? Leave some comments!

Chanel, the wirehaired dachshund who held the Guinness World Record for oldest dog, died Aug. 28. The pooch celebrated her 21st birthday on May 6 (that’s 147 in dog years).

Earlier this year, the dog’s owners, Karl and Denice Shaughnessy of Port Jefferson Station, N.Y., said that the canine, who wore sunglasses for cataracts but was otherwise in good health, still had plenty of pep.

“While I go to work she sleeps all day until I come home and then when I get home she is like a ball of fire,” Said Denice.

But, just like humans of a certain age, Denice said Chanel occasionally had senior moments. “Sometimes I will find her walking around at night and I have to give her a little snack and then she goes back to bed.”

Chanel’s owners said that treats made by Dogswell contributed to the dog’s longevity.

“We were saddened to learn of Chanel’s passing on Friday evening,” Said Marco Giannini, founder and chief executive officer of Dogswell. “Our team at Dogswell had built a great bond with Chanel, as well as her owners, who show great love and care for their pets. We were thankful to have had some part in making Chanel’s life a little more comfortable and enjoyable. As the World’s Oldest Dog, Chanel touched many lives and inspired pet owners around the globe. She will be missed.”

An executive for an anti-animal cruelty group says her 16-year-old blind and deaf dog died after she accidentally left him in her hot car for four hours.

Robin Starr, the CEO of the Richmond Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, known as the SPCA, says she didn’t realize “Louie” was in the car until noon. Starr’s husband, Ed, told the Richmond Times-Dispatch he put the dog in her car as she got ready for work Aug. 19. She often took the dog to work with her.

Robin Starr took the dog to two clinics, but he died of kidney failure.

The National Weather Service says the temperature had reached 91 degrees by noon that day.

The board of the SPCA says it still supports Starr, who has been CEO since 1997 and does not plan to resign. It was unclear whether she would be charged.

It’s never easy saying goodbye to the ones we love, but for one little elephant the pain was just unbearable. In this heartbreaking photo taken Friday, a baby elephant named Jumaane, living near Budapest, Hungary, was distraught following the death of his mother. According to reports, the 2-year-old stayed with Yoki for 14 hours after her death, refusing to leave her side and touching her trunk with his own. The elder elephant, who passed away at Nyiregyhaza Animal Park at age 19, had suffered from complications associated with a tumor in her spleen. When zookeepers finally did remove Yoki’s body from the elephant enclosure, Jumaane was said to be weeping and looking for his mom.