ohmidog!

An 82-year-old woman in Detroit has lost her Sugar Daddy.

The woman, named Audrey, said she was about to get into her car when a suspect assaulted her in front of her home, snagged her 7-year-old shih tzu, Sugar Daddy, and tried to steal her second shih tzu, Baby Doll.

“He caught Sugar Daddy, and he tried to get Baby Doll,” the woman, who wasn’t identified by her full name, told WXYZ. “He couldn’t get Baby Doll, she fought back. He took Sugar Daddy and left.”

Audrey says she has been unable to sleep since the dog was taken” “I wake up all in the middle of the night thinking about him. Every time I close my eyes I see him.”

A suspect, described as in his 20s, was waiting in the woman’s driveway, where the attack took place, and another suspect was waiting nearby in a car.

Surveillance video from a nearby school showed a car backing up to Audrey’s house on Detroit’s West Side, and what appears to be two men trying to steal the dogs.

Baby Doll ran from the men, and almost got run over by a garbage truck as she fled.

Audrey and her family members have put up flyers about Sugar Daddy’s disappearance and are offering a reward his return.

A Boston terrier who was shaken up in a massive freeway pileup in Detroit was carried to safety by a firefighter who knows a few things about dogs in distress.

Matt Schaecher works as a Detroit firefighter two days a week, and as a cruelty investigator for the Humane Society of Huron Valley for the other five.

When Schaecher came upon a woman’s crumpled car at the mile-long accident scene on southbound Interstate 75, he asked if she needed help. “I think my dog might be injured,” she responded.

Schaecher pulled the dog, named Riley, from the car and checked him out while other emergency workers attended to the driver, Heather Ramsey of Ferndale.

“He was shaking almost uncontrollably,” Schaecher said. “Probably a combination of being extremely scared and cold.” As Shaecher cradled the dog in a blanket, Detroit News photographer David Coates took the photo above.

Riley wasn’t injured, and Shaecher placed the dog in the ambulance with his owner. Ramsey has since been released from the hospital, according to AnnArbor.com

Three people, including two children, were killed in the chain reaction of crashes.

Schaecher, who is the lead cruelty investigator for the Humane Society of Huron Valley in Washtenaw County’s Superior Township, said the widely distributed photo of Riley and him served as a positive note amid the lingering horror of the crash.

“Obviously any accident scene or any emergency scene that involves children is extremely difficult,” he said. My heart just goes out to the families of the people that have lost loved ones. I can’t imagine being in that position.”

A family from Canada, visiting the U.S. for Christmas, is hoping their dog Ash turns up in Detroit, where she escaped from a U.S. Customs officer last Friday and ran away.

During an inspection of their car at the border, the Wilcken family, of Waterloo, Ontario, handed their dog over to customs officials, who placed Ash in a crate.

As she was being returned, she pulled her head out of her collar and ran from the inspector holding her leash.

Customs officials apologized for the incident, and have been searching for the dog, a Jack Russell-pug mix, according to the Detroit Free Press.

The family drove on to Atlanta, but plans to return to Detroit on their way back next week and check shelters.

“Everyday, our son says something about that dog. I remind him of the nice moments we had with her. … We have two presents on the tree for Ash,” said Ana Wilcken.

The family has received dozens of messages of support at the address they set up in hopes of finding their dog – helpfindash@hotmail.com – but none with information about the dog’s whereabouts.

Employees at the city animal-control shelter said they they had not seen the dog, adding that none of the dogs now in the shelter will be euthanized until Jan. 7, because the shelter is on a holiday schedule.

Fifteen thousand dollars in donations were received in 24 hours after a fund was set up for a Labrador retriever named Niko and his owner — both of whom were shot when she opened the front door of her home in Detroit last weekend.

Owner Gail King was released from a hospital Monday after being treated for a gunshot wound to her upper chest, her nephew told the Detroit News

King will need to undergo reconstructive surgery, but she seemed more concerned about her dog, who she visited after her release from the hospital.

“He was very happy to see his mom,” said Carrie Collins, a licensed veterinary technician who helped treat the dog.

Less than a day after the fundraising launch, more than $15,000 had been raised, and the clinic had received calls from as far away as Germany and Japan.

The donated money will be used to pay Niko’s medical costs and help with future complications, but any extra will be given to King. Donations can be made here: www.saveniko.chipin.com/niko

After rapper Young Calicoe showed off what he said were fighting dogs and roosters being kept at a Detroit home, a search warrant was executed and the animals were seized.

Police removed animals from the west-side home after the search Wednesday, a Detroit Police spokeswoman told The Detroit News.

In the video, the rapper wanders the grounds of the home, on the 12200 block of West Outer Drive, pointing to pit bulls in kennels and one chained next to a doghouse, and several roosters, of which he says, “We fight them, too. That’s a  grand champ right there.”

The animals from the home will be taken to the Michigan Humane Society,  Detroit Police Sgt. Eren Stephens said. Police are also investigating whether the allegations are part of a larger  dogfighting or cockfighting ring and are questioning several people, Stephens  said.

Michigan Humane Society spokesman Kevin Hatman said all the animals will be treated by veterinarians. “We’re just happy right now that the animals are going to be receiving  high-quality care,” he said.

In the video,  Young Calicoe calls the dogs “champions in the making,” and says  “I hope we don’t get indicted for that — that Michael  Vick-type shit.”

A bomb-sniffing dog who had worked at both the U.S. Capitol and the White House escaped during his trip to a new home, but was recovered a few hours later.

The five-year-old shepherd — retired from duty early after killing a cat — slipped out of his collar and ran off from Detroit’s Metro Airport while his new owner, a Toledo woman, was taking him for a bathroom break.

It took animal control officers and police — two of whom were bitten in the process — about two hours to capture the dog, named Arco, after he was spotted running near train tracks in Romulus yesterday afternoon, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Arco is now at the Romulus Animal Shelter and will be quarantined for 10 days before being released back to his new owner.

The dog had arrived on a flight from Arizona, where he’d been under the care of Rescued Helpers, Inc.,  in Tucson for the past seven months.

According to WXYZ, the rescue organization stepped in when they heard Arco, after his government service was over, was to be euthanized.

Rescued Helpers vice president and founder Nadine Karsevar said Arco wasn’t aggressive and that, while under the organization’s care, had taken part in parades and other events.

We start the New Year by looking back at one of last year’s most downer dog stories (and there were many) — that of a stray pit bull who wandered into a hardware store and ended up getting euthanized, despite the efforts of rescue groups and a community to save him.

And we start – Happy New Year! — with what is both its latest twist and its silver lining:

A Detroit rescue group’s efforts to save that pit bull — named Ace – has moved an anonymous California woman to donate $1.5 million to build a no-kill shelter in a city that sorely needs one

Detroit Dog Rescue says the donation — in the form of stock options — came from a woman they described as “a fellow dog rescuer who is battling a life-threatening illness.”

“She just kind of nonchalanty, very humbly, just rambled off very quickly, ‘I just want you to know that we’re going to do this very fast and it’s just going to be a quick transfer of stocks to you guys. You should have the million dollars overnight,’”  co-founder Daniel “Hush” Carlisle told Channel 4 News. “And I was like, ‘Excuse me? Did you just say a million dollars?’”

But the story starts with Ace.

On November 4, the rescue learned through emails and Facebook posts that a dog had wandered into an Ace Hardware store on E. McNichols. He was emaciated, and there were wounds on his neck. DDR staff rushed to the store — knowing all stray pit bulls seized in Detroit are euthanized — but animal control had arrived there first.

“Due to Detroit Animal Control’s egregious policy of euthanizing 100 percent of dogs that they deem to be pit bulls or pit mixes, we knew that Ace would almost certainly be put down,” DDR’s account of the story on its website explains.

“Luckily, the media had gotten a hold of the story as thousands rallied together. A group of people started a “Save Ace” Facebook page, and a licensed rescue (Stray K-9 Rescue) confirmed that they would take Ace if Detroit Animal Control would release him.”

Ace’s supporters attended a city council meeting to urge the dog be released.

Despite that, city health department officials said Ace wouldn’t be released, and that if no owner came forward, he would be killed after the mandatory four-day holding period.

An owner did come forward, after seeing Ace on the news, stating the dog had been stolen from her home. But when she arrived at animal control to claim her dog, the dog she was shown wasn’t her’s. Nor was it Ace, DDR says.

The rescue group suspected animal control might have euthanized Ace the day he arrived, and that it was attempting to cover it up.

Hiring lawyers, the rescue group and the owner went to court and were granted an injunction that barred animal control from killing any dogs resembling Ace until a hearing could be held.

On Nov. 10, though, animal control reported it had euthanized Ace.

“We at Detroit Dog Rescue believe that Detroit Animal Control put the dog they tried to pass off as Ace down early rather than have to prove whether he was or was not Ace … Their preferred method is one of eradication and they believe themselves to be above the law. They bumbled, lied, tried to backtrack, and then disregarded a direct order from the judge,” the DDR website says.

While unsuccessful in saving the dog, DDR’s efforts impressed the mystery donor.

DDR spokesman David Rudolph said the donor tracked the organization’s work after seeing it on TV in May, and decided to make the donation after learning about the group’s attempt to save Ace.

Carlisle said the donation brought him to tears. “To have a donation of this size given to us in the amount of time that we’ve been up, 10 months, it’s going to be a really exciting time,” he said.

On top of that donation, DDR — whose budget had reportedly shrunk to $43 at one point — saw an influx of donations, more than $200,000, after it was featured on an NBC Nightly News segment called “Making a Difference.”

“This donation is just the beginning,” said Monica Martino, who co-founded the organization after city officials denied a Discovery Channel request to film her series “A Dog’s Life.”

“While Hush and I were working on the streets of Detroit, we saw firsthand the true scope and scale of the stray dog situation. This problem in Detroit is an epidemic and the system that is in place to control it is broken. The first step is to build a no-kill shelter.”

Could dogs have prevented Umar Farouk AbdulMutallab from boarding a plane with explosives hidden in his underwear?

CNN asked the question yesterday — the answer to which is, with enough properly trained dogs, probably.

But explosives-detecting dogs, the report points out, aren’t generally trained to sniff out humans, and having them do so might raise some privacy concerns.

Still, those quoted in the report say, something as low-tech as dogs could be our best solution to the problem.

“The fact that this individual showed up with a one-way ticket, purchased with cash and no checked baggage — he should have been pulled aside,” said security expert Larry Berg, a consultant with Berg Associates. “And at that point, if inspected by a dog, he literally could have been detected.”

“A well-trained dog and a very good, well-trained handler can find explosives with little or no false alarms,” said trainer Patrick Beltz said. “And if they had been doing it, it might have deterred him from trying to get on the plane in the first place.”

About 700 bomb-sniffing dogs currently work at U.S. airports, and they are trained to detect up to a dozen different explosive compounds, including PETN, the compound that AbdulMutallab is alleged to have smuggled aboard Northwest flight 253 to Detroit on December 25.

The report also looks at research underway at Auburn University in Alabama, where dogs are being used to sniff not people, but the air they leave in their wake when they pass by. The Auburn trainers believe their dogs can detect very small traces of explosives and then follow the trail to the person carrying a bomb.

What would you name a dachshund, born deaf and blind, who counts on his nose to show him the way?

To Marcia Fishman, the answer was obvious: Rudolph.

After bouncing between four other homes, Rudolph was adopted by Fishman two years ago, and he’s gone on to become a visitor to elementary schools, and the subject of a children’s book.

“Rudolph’s Nose Knows,” written by Fishman, is about a blind and deaf dog teased by other dogs because he bumps into things. When he turns out to be the only one able to rescue a bird stuck in a hole, he becomes a hero.

As a team, Rudolph and Fishman visit schools around Detroit to help show kids that disabilities are surmountable, and that teasing — whether over a red nose or some other physical challenge – is a painful and misguided waste of time. Fishman hopes that Rudolph, the dachshund, can help teach children to accept others who might appear different from themselves.

Last week, they dropped in on more than 60 third-graders at McIntrye Elementary School in Southfield, according to the Detroit Free Press.

“Shut your eyes and hold your ears as tight as possible,” Fishman told the students. “Don’t feel sorry for Rudolph, he is a happy dog. But I want you to understand what he experiences every day of his life.”

Though he can’t hear or see, Rudolph is helping to instill compassion and acceptance in the children, Fishman said. ”He’s spreading a great message. I will never forget what one child said to me last year, after he hugged Rudolph– ‘I am going to tell my mommy that I want a deaf and blind dog, too.’ “

Those who know him say a homeless man named Tim — despite his living conditions — took good care of his chocolate Lab, Pudge.

“No matter if it was five degrees below zero or if it was really hot, he had water for the dog and he took care of that dog before he took care of himself,” said Cheryl Munro.

For reasons unexplained, a Detroit police officer notified Animal Control and Pudge was picked up, according to a report by Fox 2 News in Detroit. She spent a week in the a nimal shelter because Tim lacked the money to pay for the license and vaccinations needed to get his dog back.

It looked like things were headed for a cruel end when those familiar with Tim and Pudge learned what had happened and began raising money.

“My co-workers and I, we work at Detroit Edison, and we went around and collected some money… to get this dog out of the pound for him,” Munro said.

Even the city Health Department, of which Animal Control is a division, helped pave the way for Tim to get his dog back.

“That’s his only companion. That’s his friend for life, and when you’re out here in the cold, you need some comfort,” said Detroit Health Department Spokesperson Mike McElrath. “We understand that at the Health Department, and what we’ve done, at this point, is we’re trying to reunite them. But because the gentleman is homeless, we know there has to be a legal residency, and so, we’re going to transfer it over to a friend.”

While the friends are having trouble locating Tim, one, Sharon Maceri, offered to take Pudge in until he can be found.

“I can’t imagine what this dog is going through with not being with Tim right now,” she said.