ohmidog!

The death of his owner during Hurricane Sandy has sent Lucas, a collie-shepherd mix, back to the same shelter he was adopted from about five years ago.

He’s grayer around the muzzle now than he was then — when a couple dropped him at the Staten Island animal care and control facility, saying they’d just had a baby and no longer had room for him.

This time, his route there was even sadder.

According to Examiner.com, Lucas remained by his dead owner’s side until they were both discovered in the aftermath of the superstorm.

A Facebook page for Lucas says he seems stressed and confused, and doesn’t like being caged. “When Lucas is out of the cage and outside his personality shines through. We think that a home with older children is best because he appears to have been in a home as a single dog with no other animals and is used to quiet.”

A police officer’s fatal shooting of a citizen’s dog on a sidewalk in Omaha three weeks ago was captured on a neighbor’s security camera — and aired this week by a local news station.

Grainy as it is, the video shows officers stopping the man, who they described as drunk and defiant. One officer takes him down; the other shoots the dog he was walking.

In their report, the two officers, named Schuster and Clement, say the “suspect’s dog became aggressive, growled at officers, and showed its teeth before being shot and killed.”

Police were searching for an armed suspect when the Oct. 7 incident took place. They said Chris Schulte, who lives in the area and was walking with his dog, Teela, in the direction of the search area, refused their orders to stop.

Schulte admitted “I was just walking on,” but said the dog never behaved aggressively.

Tim Wagner told Channel 6 News he watched the incident from inside his home on his night vision security camera.

“The dog didn’t stand a chance,” Wagner said. “The dog did nothing aggressive. I’ve lived next to this dog two and a half years and it’s one of the best dogs.”

Teela belonged to his Schulte’s aunt, Michelle Meadows.

Meadows said, “It was very shocking. I would think they would maybe taser her or something, if they thought she was being aggressive, but I don’t think she was.”

Schulte was arrested and charged with obstructing police and resisting arrest.

“The Omaha Police Department is aware of the incident and Chief Schmaderer has authorized an Internal Investigation into the matter,” a police spokesman said.

Last Thursday, John Dolan picked up his ringing cell phone and was told to come get his dog, who was standing outside Good Samaritan Medical Center in Islip, N.Y.

A hospital employee had come across the dog, checked the tags, found Dolan’s number and called it.

What the hospital employee didn’t know was that Dolan was, at the time, a patient in the hospital — and that his dog, Zander, had somehow tracked him there from home, even though home was two miles from the hospital.

Zander is a 70-pound, 7-year-old samoyed-husky mix, with a history of escaping from their home. Dolan and his wife had rescued him from a shelter five years ago. This time though, he appeared to have escaped for a reason.

In the days since Dolan entered the hospital, the dog had been acting sad, Dolan said his wife told him.

“He was moping around for the days I was already at the hospital, sitting in my seat and rolled up and depressed. My wife said he had water in his eyes and looked like he was really sad,” Dolan, 46, told ABCNews.com today.

After Dolan got the call that Zander was outside the hospital, he called his wife, Priscilla, who hadn’t realized Zander was missing.

She drove to the hospital to pick up Zander, who had never been to the hospital before.

Dolan’s back home, too, now, and he reports Zander is not leaving his side.

An 81-year-old man is crediting his Lhasa Apso with saving his life after he fell from a ridge into a deep pool of mud and clung to a bridge rail to keep from sinking as his dog ran for help.

Derek Ramsden was on vacation in Wales and taking his dogs for a walk when he fell.

He says his 18-year-old terrier mix took no action, but his seven-year-old Lhasa Apso, Toby, ran for a quarter of a mile and, just like Lassie, barked at park officials until they followed him back to the scene.

“I managed to get hold of a railing on the bridge. It was frightening. I could not get out and you can’t hold your grip for long at my age,” he told The Telegraph. “I was scared that I was going to tumble down the bank. I don’t like to think what would have happened if not for Toby. He definitely saved my life.”

“Toby is dedicated to both of us and I think he is a hero,” said Ramsden, from Halifax, West Yorks. “He’s my very own Lassie. He saved my life and I’m very grateful.”

Ramsden’s wife, Ada, who had not gone along for the walk at Bryowen Holiday Park, said she went searching for him after an hour and found him as he was being pulled to safety by park staff.

“He was covered in mud from head to foot. If he had let go he could have slipped down further. Toby saved him,” she said.

“The dog knew what it was doing. It ran past apartments through bushes and alerted security,” said park maintenance manager Ben Thompson. “The dog was leading the way and without the dog we would not have known he was there. That dog certainly has something about it.”

(Photo: Ross Parry / The Telegraph)

The owner of a dog rescued from a Colorado mountain after he had to abandon her has consented to give the German shepherd-Rottweiler mix to one of her rescuers.

“I don’t want to give her up — I love her — but those people risked life and limb to get her out of there, and that has got to be worth something,” Anthony Ortolani told the Denver Post.

Ortolani, 31, was climbing with a friend when a combination of factors led him to decide to leave his dog, Missy, behind.

The dog’s feet were blistered and she was unable to walk. A storm was approaching. And his climbing companion was out of water. They tried carrying the five-year-old, 112-pound dog, but after two hours, he said, they ended up leaving her between Mount Bierstadt and Mount Evans.

Once down the mountain, Ortolani called a friend who contacted the Clear Creek County Sheriff’s Office but was told the region was too dangerous and that the department didn’t rescue animals.

Missy was stranded for eight days before a volunteer group of rescuers found her and carried her down the mountain.

After that, Ortolani was charged with animal cruelty for abandoning her, and one of the rescuers expressed interest in keeping the dog.

Ortolani has agreed to plead guilty to a less serious charge, according to his lawyer, Jennifer Edwards, founder and attorney with the Animal Law Center.

Discussions leading to the plea bargain included talk of his giving up the dog, said Edwards, but are not the reason for his surrendering the animal.

(Photo: 14ers.com)

Police in Osceola, Wisconsin, say a man tied up a teenager he suspected had stolen from him, hung him upside down and commanded his pit bull to attack him.

Police said the 58-year-old homeowner ordered his pit bull to attack the 18-year-old three times — first as part of “interrogating” him, then a second time, then a third time after tying him up, dragging him outside and tying him upside down to the porch rafters.

The 18-year-old was treated at a hospital for for multiple dog bites and released, according to the Fond du Lac Reporter.

Police said the young man’s father witnessed, and may have participated in, the “interrogation.”

A third person who saw what was going on at the residence called police.

Charges of false imprisonment, negligent handling of a dangerous weapon, aggravated battery and bail-jumping are being referred to the Fond du Lac County District Attorney’s Office against the 58-year-old  man, who is scheduled to be tried on an unrelated charge of child abuse later this year.

The boy’s father is expected to face similar charges, along with failing to aid the victim in reporting a crime.

The dog is being held at the Fond du Lac Humane Society.

Losing weight is what it’s all about for Alfie — a yellow Lab described as “Britain’s fattest dog,” who was 175 pounds when the RSPCA took him in back in March.

That’s about three times the average weight of a Labrador — and enough that it required four people using towels as slings to lift him when he arrived at the RSPCA’s Leybourne Animal Centre in Kent.

The 12-year-old dog was surrendered to the RSPCA by an elderly owner who kept forgetting he had already fed his pet, according to the Daily Mail.

(I am pretty sure I did that with Ace yesterday, giving him dinner twice.)

Alfie struggled to walk more than a few steps when he arrived, and he couldn’t lift his legs the few inches needed to get into a slightly raised bed at the kennel. He’s now about halfway to his target weight, staff members say.

“He literally could not stand up when he arrived because he was so fat,” said Christine Dooley, center manager. “I have never seen a dog that fat before in my 27 years with the RSPCA … He was just a massive blob with a leg at each corner. He was being fed to death …”

“When he first came in he couldn’t go on walks because of his size, but each day as the weight is coming off he is able to take a few steps further. We have to be careful when staff take him for a walk because if he sits down and refuses to get back up we have to call in extra people to lift him up again.

“We want the weight to come off slowly to give his leg muscles a chance to build up strength and for his skin to shrink … He’s such a lovely dog and his tail never stops wagging. Everyone here has fallen in love with him.’

Once Alfie has reached a manageable weight, the center will put him up for adoption.

(Photo: Ferrari Press Agency, via Daily Mail)

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

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Mugly, a Chinese crested from the UK, won the World’s Ugliest Dog contest in Northern California on Friday.

Mugly will take home $1,000 and a year’s worth of dog cookies.

He beat out 28 other ugly dogs — all of whom can be found here.

The 8-year-old rescue dog from the United Kingdom will also be invited for a photo shoot and will receive a VIP stay at the local Sheraton.

“I couldn’t speak when they announced Mugly’s name,” said Bev Nicholson, the dog’s owner. “I didn’t know which way to look. I was shaking as much as the dog.”

Chinese cresteds traditionally take top honors at the event, held each year at the Marin-Sonoma Fairgrounds. Last year’s winner, Yoda, was a Chinese crested and Chihuahua mix. The 15-year-old dog died in March.