ohmidog!

Firefighters rescued a dog Sunday from an icy pond in Florence, Kentucky, after the one-year-old husky fell through the ice.

Brandon Kilby, of the Union fire department, is shown here pulling the dog, named Ali, to safety.

According to the Kentucky Post, six fire departments responded to the call at  a trailer park near Mount Zion Road.

Fire officials said the rescued dog was treated and returned to her owners.

(Photo: Kentucky Post, courtesy of William Fletcher)

A Florida grandfather is recovering from injuries he received after he dove on the back of an alligator to save his 9-year-old West Highland terrier, Bounce.

Steve Gustafson, a 66-year-old retired corporate lawyer told the Orlando Sentinel he didn’t think twice before jumping into a pond Friday and wrestling the 7-foot gator that was trying to carry away his “best friend.

He jumped on top of the gator and held its head while Bounce paddled to safety,

He then tossed the gator away from his body and ran, but it still managed to snap his hand. He required two stitches. Bounce is fine.

“It’s like being in a really bad car accident and walking away from it,” Gustafson said.

The gator was caught by a trapper Monday, and Gustafson said he plans to get it mounted and keep it on his porch as a souvenir.

Kyle Dyer, the Denver anchorwoman bitten on the air, said she probably did stick her face too close to the 85-pound Argentine mastiff, and that’s she glad he’s back home with his family.

Dyer, of KUSA-TV, was bitten on the mouth earlier this month while doing a segment with the dog’s owner and a firefighter who had rescued the pet from an icy pond.

“Everyone says ‘you were too close to the dog.’ I guess I was because this happened. I guess we’ve all learned a lot in the past two weeks,” she said in an interview with the Denver Post

“For me it has been in its odd way a positive experience. In this business, yes, what you look like is a lot. What this whole experience has taught me is it’s more than that. It may seem like a superficial busines, but the people out there in Colorado are not superficial, the way they’ve reached out to me, and letting me know ‘you’re beautiful inside and out’ and all that.”

“I just keep reading those letters and know that I’m healing. I don’t know how quickly, but I will.”

The station said Dyer had a second surgery on Monday. She was given 20 new stitches and had the 70 stitches that were initially put in on Feb. 8 removed.

As for Max, the dog that bit her, Dyer said, “I’m glad the dog’s back home with his family. I never wanted anything but.”

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All in all, it has been a rough few days for Gladiator Max, an 85-pound Argentine Mastiff in Colorado — but maybe rougher yet for Denver TV news anchor Kyle Dyer, who Max bit during a Wednesday interview about the dog’s icy rescue.

Dyer was interviewing the dog, his owner, and the firefighter who rescued him from an icy pond Tuesday — all of whom had been invited to the offices of 9 News in Denver. Max had shown no aggression — not during the rescue and not during the studio interview.

But when Dyer got too close, Max bit her in the face. She was taken to Denver Health Medical Center, where she was listed in fair condition, according to 9NEWS.

The incident aired live, but the station is not reshowing video of the bite.

Doug Kelley, the director of Denver Animal Care and Control, said Max’s owner will be cited — for the bite, for the leash law violation, and for not having Max vaccinated against rabies.

The dog is being held at the Denver Animal Shelter and will be quarantined for 10 days, according to Kelley.

The studio interview was for a follow up story on Max’s rescue Tuesday evening. Max chased a coyote onto the ice of Smith Reservoir and fell through, according to 9 News in its initial report.

The dog spent 20 minutes in the freezing water before firefighters arrived. Firefighter Tyler Sugaski fell through the ice on his way to Max, swimming the rest of the way to grab him.

“The dog recognized right off that I was there to help, so he came towards me,” Sugaski recalled.

Other than some scrapes from the ice, the dog appeared fine and was taken into an ambulance to be warmed up.

“He’s just a rock solid dog,” said his owner, Michael Robinson.

This video of an orangutan gently pulling a duckling out of a pond appears headed for viral status — even though no one really knows what the outcome was.

But not knowing the story isn’t stopping the media from spreading one.

The Daily Mail, for instance, reports — based on nothing more than viewing the video — that the orangutan is rescuing the duckling from drowning and seems to “kiss life into its new friend.”

But many Internet commenters note that the duckling didn’t appear in need of rescue and are wondering if, once the camera stopped taping, it became lunch.

Not even the setting is known: Some reports say it took place at a U.S. zoo, others say an unknown zoo, others say it was a Dublin zoo.

Other than Ace’s periodic visits, there’s probably nothing residents of Arbor Acres — a retirement community in Winston-Salem — like better than the ducks that waddle and swim in and around the large pond that graces the acreage.

Actually, even though Ace has some pretty big time fans there, the ducks probably rate higher – at least in the eyes of some residents, including my own mother (that’s her to the left, explanation to follow). She, I think it’s safe to say, prefers watching ducks outside her window to having a dog inside her room.

On at least one occasion, she harbored some fugitive newborn ducks who, like all newborn ducks, needed a little protection from the bigger creatures, like foxes and turtles, who tend to snatch them away.

Because of that, the duck population at Arbor Acres sometimes dwindles down to a precious few, and the residents who like to watch them, feed them, and sometimes name them, worry about losing the closest thing many of them have to pets.

(Dogs are allowed there, but only a handful of residents have them.)

Instead, most often, they enjoy the animals nature provides, the ducks, the geese, the fish in the pond and the two blue herons that call the area around the pond home for much of the year.

Sometimes though, even nature needs a hand.

And that’s where Bo Bowers came in.

Bo, who moved into the community in March, brought with him some duck-raising skills, and when the duck census recently dropped he made a deal with the administration — if they provided materials to build the pens, he’d buy some baby ducks and raise them until they were big enough to survive on their own. 

He ordered 16 baby ducklings — of five different breeds — through a catalog. They were 12 days old when they were delivered, and he started feeding them in the 4-foot by 12-foot cage, complete with swimming pool, set up behind his home.

Last month, in a ceremony attended by many residents, he “launched” his babies, releasing them into the pond as residents, staff and at least one TV news outfit looked on. Many of the ducks, by then, had been named after residents, including one named Jo, after my mother.

Bowers has been raising fowl — including some blue ribbon winners — almost his whole life, he said. “They are like my children.”

Wake up early enough and you can see Bowers, tall and gangly, striding down a sidewalk with the still-growing ducks following him. He puts out food, talks to them, takes a count to make sure everyone’s still there.

Two of the ducks are of a breed called white crested.

They have tufts of feathers on their head, like bouffant hairdos — quackfros, we called them. There are black ones, brown ones and silvery blue ones, and, diverse group that they are, they all, after several weeks, still hang together – a pack, as it were.

At least two residents warned me to keep Ace away from the ducks, though he has little interest other than watching them.

I’m pretty sure dogs don’t rule at Arbor Acres. Ducks do.

(“Dog’s Country” is the continuing account of one man and one dog spending six months crossing the country. To read the latest installments, click here. To start from the beginning click here.)

Yesterday’s Washington Post had a great series of photos depicting the rescue of a yellow Lab who wandered into an icy pond in Potomac.

A neighbor spotted the dog — named Tully — out his kitchen window and called 911. Rescuers arrived within minutes, cut through a fence and plunged in after him as the dog’s family watched.

The four-year old dog was worn out by then and unable to hoist himself out, according to his owner, Bruce Stewart, whose 14-year-old son encouraged the dog from shore: “Hold on there, buddy! You’re a good boy!”

Rashad Surratt, a firefighter, entered the pond and Tully paddled toward him. The rescuer wrapped his arms and a harness around the dog, who seemed happy to get a hand. “He just gave up,” Surratt said Saturday. “He was really, really tired.”

Other firefighters were able to help pull Tully across the ice and get him to the shore. Tully was wrapped in coats and blankets, loaded onto a toboggan and pulled home by firefighters and residents. To see all the photos, visit the Post’s photo gallery.

Stewart, an executive at text-messaging company kgb, said Tully apparently walked right through his electronic fence, which had been disabled by the snow.

(Photo: Lea Thompson / Washington Post)

Gollum, the Italian greyhound whose owner died trying to save her other two dogs from an icy pond in Fort Worth, was found yesterday, not far from her home.

Andrea Benua, 34, died Monday night after plunging into an icy pond to rescue her other two dogs.

Gollum was spotted barking near the pond, and led authorities to where his owner drowned. As his owner’s body was retrieved from the pond Gollum disappeared, sparking an effort by friends and family of Benua to find him.

The SPCA of Texas offered a reward of $ 5,000 for the return of Gollum,

On Friday, a builder working near the Benua home spotted Gollum and returned him to the Benua’s house, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

The search continued yesterday for Gollum, a small Italian Greyhound whose owner died trying to save him and her other two dogs from an icy pond in Texas.

Police say the other two dogs and their owner, Andrea Benua, drowned in the pond Monday.

Gollum is believed not to have dronwned,but he disappeared after the accident. Benua’s family and friends are trying to find him, they say, because it’s what Benua would have wanted. Benua and her husband had no children, only the dogs, WFAA in Dallas-Fort Worth reports.

Benua frequently donated to animal shelters and her friends and family asked that anyone wishing to honor her memory do the same.

Police in Massachussetts are hoping a Saint Bernard might help them solve the mystery of his owner’s disappearance.

Police are searching for an elderly man who walked the Saint Bernard every morning near Accord Pond, a reservoir that supplies water to several South Shore communities.

The dog showed up alone Wednesday at a Chili’s restaurant, where a manager called police.

Last week, police let the dog loose in the woods near the pond, hoping he would lead them to a house, according to a Boston Globe article. But he just wandered around the area. On Wednesday, divers searched Accord Pond for nearly four hours, but did not find anything.

Since then, Leslie Badger, an animal control officer in Hingam, Mass., has been taking the dog around town, in hopes somebody might recognize him and be able to provide some clues to his owner’s identity.

Many people in the area saw the man walking the dog early in the morning on streets near the pond. But authorities haven’t found any one who knows his name and address.

Police are considering the possibility that the man abandoned the dog. Authorities say the dog is visibly upset, and that many have called offering to adopt him.