ohmidog!

This year’s Itarod has claimed its first victim – a six-year-old dog in the team of North Pole musher Jeff Holt.

The dog, named Victor, died somewhere between the Rainy Pass and Rohn checkpoints, according to the Anchorage Daily News.

Several teams ran into trouble on a steep section of trail in that stretch, the newspaper said, one of whom, Nancy Yoshida, 58, required being rescued after her sled lost both runners.

Other mushers said Yoshida’s sled and team blocked the narrow trail, causing wrecks behind her, but it’s not clear whether Holt’s dog died near that spot.

A necropsy will be conducted by a board-certified pathologist to try to determine why Holt’s dog perished, the Iditarod Trail Committee said in a press release.

Holt, a refinery operator who lives at the North Pole has a best finish of 59th in two previous Iditarods. He runs the Dogs & Dreams kennel.

Two dogs died in last year’s race, and at least three died in 2007 in a race that also saw a musher disqualified from the race for reportedly kicking and beating his dogs. Four dogs died in 2006, and at least three in 2005.

Two cats are dead and one dog remains missing after an explosion and fire at a Massachusetts animal hospital.

Head vet Scott Munson of the Cape Cod Animal Hospital in Barnstable said a dozen dogs were rescued after he and other rescuers broke the kennel door with a cinder block, allowing the animals to run out.

The recovered animals were taken to another animal hospital, according to an Associated Press report.

Fire officials say the Monday night fire started in the main veterinary offices. The state Fire Marshal is investigating, and trying to determine the fire’s origin. The blaze came 20 minutes after area residents reported their lights had dimmed.

Meanwhile, a 17th dog died Sunday from injuries it received in a Friday explosion and kennel fire in Carbon County, Pa.

That fire, at Pazzazz Pet Boarding kennel, near Beltzville State Park in Franklin Township, killed Martha Stewart’s chow chow, Genghis Khan. It started when a propane tank ignited as it was being filled by a delivery man, according to the Allentown Morning Call. The delivery man, who reportedly saved at least one dog, remains in critical condition at Lehigh Valley Hospital – Cedar Crest, a hospital spokesman said.

Here’s a video report on that fire.

The same telephone technology that makes it possible for us to be annoyed by political campaign robocalls is now being used to annoy us about lost pets.

Which, in my book, is a far more worthy reason to annoy someone.

An article in yesterday’s Washington Post looked at the latest technology people are using to find lost pets, including websites like Findtoto.com, Findfido.com and Pets911.com.

The Post article recounted the case of Lucy, a missing Australian shepherd-husky mix, who disappeared from her Mount Pleasant neighborhood.

Through Find Toto, the owners were able to, within hours of her disappearance, make contact with 10,000 households in the District and Montgomery County, describing Lucy and letting them know whom to call if she was found.

Find Toto offers several packages, starting with one that calls 500 neighbors with a recorded message for $125, all the way up $875 for calling 10,000 neighbors.

The article quotes Scott Giacoppo, chief programs officer for the Washington Humane Society, as saying a small industry has evolved around finding lost pets — not all members of which are trustworthy. He urged seekers of lost pets not give up the old-fashioned methods, like checking with shelters, handing out fliers and posting neighborhood signs, and to remember first and foremost that registering one’s dog, making sure the dog is wearing its ID tags, and microchipping are the best ways to ensure your lost pet gets returned.

Find Toto says it has found more than 900 dogs, cats and other pets since it was established in 2007 — with a success rate of more than 70 percent.

Lucy, meanwhile, was recovered, but not through the service. A month after she disappeared, she was reported to have been seen by animal control officers on Massachusetts Avenue NW, who reviewed photographs of dogs reported missing back and alerted Lucy’s owners to the sighting. They searched the area and found her.

(Photo from Findtoto.com)

In a reversal of roles, humans rescued a 16-month-old St. Bernard from freezing weather.

The dog, named Duke, escaped from his yard and ended up frozen to the ice on a pond at a golf course near Billings, Montana.

A maintenance worker at the Peter Yegen Jr. Golf Club, spotted the dog at about 9 a.m. Friday. Two firefighters on a sled managed to reach the shivering dog, breaking the ice around his tail with a mallet, and hauling the dog ashore — along with the chunk of ice still attached to him.

Rescuers believe that Duke, who weights nearly 120 pounds, fell through the ice on the pond sometime during the night and, after pulling himself out, sat on the ice and became frozen to it, according to an Associated Press account.

Duke was taken to Big Sky Pet Center, where he was listed in good condition after being de-iced and warmed up under a blow dryer.

Mandatory pet sterilization is back on the table in Chicago, and this time the City Council sponsor says he expects his proposal, revised to lessen the fines, to win approval.

Under the new proposal from Alderman Ed Burke, a third offense for not neutering or spaying a pet before they turn 6 months old would trigger a fine of $100 per month. His earlier proposal called for a $500 fine.

A mandatory spay/neuter law was proposed last summer, and former TV game show host Bob Barker came to Chicago to support it, saying it would cut down on the numbers of stray dogs and cats euthanized each year.

But the Chicago and Illinois State Veterinary Medical Associations opposed the measure, saying decisions about sterilization were best left to pet owners and their veterinarians, according to the Chicago Tribune. The proposal never came to a vote.

The proposal is expected to be voted on at a committee meeting Thursday.

Four dogs have gotten sick and one died, apparently from eating poison-laced food at Carriage Lane Park in Mesa, Arizona.

Orange signs are posted at the parks entrance warning that someone is lacing food with strychnine and leaving it in the park, radio station KTAR reported.

Strychnine is a poison often used to kill birds and rodents.

Concerned dog owners have started a website to stay on top of the situation, carriagelanecanines.com.