ohmidog!

The man who left his injured dog atop a Colorado mountain, now facing animal cruelty charges, wants his dog back.

But one of the dog’s rescuers want to keep it.

The dog is safe and recovering now, but another doggie custody battle looks to be in the offing, pitting a dog’s original owner against someone who helped save it.

Anthony Ortalani was charged with animal cruelty Friday following an investigation by the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office, KUSA reported.

“We base that on information we learned that the dog had been up there for eight days in this rugged terrain. The weather had been inclement on certain days with rain and snow and the fact that he made little attempt to go back up and get the dog or try to make any other arraignments to retrieve the dog and get it back,” Sgt. Rick Safe with the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Department said.

The dog, named Missy, has not been returned to Ortalani, who faces a court appearance Oct. 16.

“The dog is doing great now and is expected to make a full recovery,” Sgt. Safe said.

But apparently that’s no thanks to the sheriff’s department.

The Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Department is the same agency that Ortalini contacted for help once getting down the mountain. He says they declined to attempt a rescue of his German shepherd

According to Ortalani he was climbing Mt. Bierstadt when his dog’s paws became blistered and too sore for her to continue walking. Ortalani says he tried to carry the 112-pound dog off the mountain but was unable to. He says that attempts by him and his friends to lower the dog with ropes ended up injuring the dog even more.

With a storm approaching, he says, he was forced to leave Missy behind.

Once down the mountain, Ortalani contacted a search-and-rescue group and the Clear Creek sheriff’s department but says he was told it was too risky to send a rescue crew up for the dog.

A group of volunteers managed to pull it off, though.

Scott Washburn was out hiking with his wife when he spotted the dog, 13,000 feet up Mount Bierstadt. He posted photos of the dog on a climbing website, 14ers.com. A group of volunteers was assembled, and they climbed back up and brought Missy down.  The hikers took turns carrying her in a backpack down the mountain. Missy, who spent eight days on the mountain without food or water, was taken to a veterinarian who treated her for injuries to her paws and dehydration.

While Ortalani wants her back. Washburn and his wife have asked to adopt the dog.

Ortalani posted his thanks for those who rescued his dog on 14ers.com: “I am at a complete loss of words. My gratitude for the people involved in this is without measure.”

He went on to say, “I humbly beg the forgiveness of the community and most of all my Missy Girl. Thank you all from the bottom of my heart.”

(Photo: 14ers.com)

Like something out of a zombie movie, hundreds of dogs are wandering the no-entry zone around the Fukishima Daiichi nuclear power plant in Japan, waiting — Hachiko-like — for owners who no longer live there.

The Fukushima prefectural government and Japan’s Environment Ministry are trying to capture pets left within a 12.4 mile radius of the plant, which was crippled by the disastrous March 11 earthquake, leading to the declaration of a nuclear emergency and evacuation of the area.

Before the disaster, there were about 5,800 registered dogs in the area that became the no-entry zone, according to a report in the Seattle Times.

It’s not known how many escaped the area with their owners.

From May 10 to the end of August, the prefectural government captured a total of 323 pets, mainly dogs, that were left leashed at empty houses.

While many dogs are suspected to have died in the tsunami or from starvation, hundreds of dogs are believed to still be living within the zone, and it’s likely that some will soon be producing litters of pups.

“(The) offspring will be wild dogs with no experience with people,” an official said. “We want to catch these puppies before they grow up.”

A warehouse in Fukushima is serving as home to about 150 captured dogs.

Most of the dogs’ owners now live in makeshift accommodation units or apartments, outside the no-entry zone, so there are no prospects of them collecting the dogs.

The prefectural government said it plans to establish another shelter for dogs. Care of the dogs is being paid for with about $444,000 in donations, but at the end of August, only about $116,000 of that remained.

“Pets provide people with mental support, so we’d like to return them to their owners as soon as possible, but there’s no end to this problem in sight,” the official said.

(Photo: A dog walks across a street in the deserted town of Futaba in April, inside the 12-mile evacuation zone around the crippled Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant. By Sergey Ponomarev / Associated Press)

Will families of American military personnel in Japan be forced to leave their pets behind when they evacuate?

The Animal Legal Defense Fund is seeking the anwer to that question.

In a letter to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, the non-profit organization asks for a clarification of the U.S. government’s policy on whether or not military families can bring their pets with them — or must be forced to choose between staying in harm’s way and abandoning a beloved companion.

Family members of military personnel stationed in Japan began evacuating today amid the increasing threat of radioactivity in the wake of last week’s earthquake and tsunami.

ALDF says it has received desperate emails from some of them, who say they’ve been informed pets will not be allowed on evacuation planes chartered by the U.S. Department of State.

“In a context of terrifying natural and nuclear disasters, with military personnel and their families already being separated from each other, we would hope that the U.S. government would not place an additional burden on military families by disregarding the very real bonds they have with their animal companions” said Carter Dillard, ALDF’s director of litigation.

“It is our hope that the tragedy of people forced to abandon beloved pets in order to evacuate to safety, which we saw play out on a heartbreaking scale during Hurricane Katrina, is not replicated during the current crisis in Japan.”

ALDF says it has heard from numerous families who say they are hesitant to evacuate from the escalating radiation danger if they are required to leave their pets behind.

Some families have turned to Facebook for help, including Mariaelena Rodriguez Geoffray, shown above with her dog, Bella. Seeking a commercial flight, she has been told by two airlines that temperatures are too cold to fly a pet.

Her dilemma is recounted on the blog Two Little Cavaliers.

There are about 43,000 dependents of American military personnel living in Japan.

One hadn’t eaten in a month. The other had a skin infection so severe one of her ears was swollen more than twice its size with blood.

Both ended up at the Animal Medical and Surgical Center in North Scottsdale after being found abandoned — two more dogs in the continuing parade of pets being left behind by families foreclosed upon, evicted or simply thoughtless.

The two dogs were brought in within days of each other, Channel 15 News in Phoenix reported.

Veterinarian Sheila Martin said one of the dogs had not eaten in about a month and was infested with thousands of ticks. The dog’s owners left her behind when they moved out of their El Mirage home a month ago.

El Mirage Police are looking into filing charges against the dog’s owner.

Earlier this week, a second dog was brought into the Animal Medical and Surgical Center. She too had been abandoned by her owner. Martin said it will take about three months for her to recover from a skin disease that caused most of her hair to fall out.

The Lost Our Home Pet Foundation, a group that rescues pets left behind due to foreclosures or other financial hardships, is paying for the dogs’ care.

In the past three weeks, the group has seen three pets so badly neglected the animals have needed hospital care, said Jodi Polanski, president of the foundation,

“You keep thinking you see a bad case and then you have another one come right after that.”