ohmidog!

Authorities are investigating a report that six dogs were stolen from a Missouri dog shelter by thieves who demanded a ransom for their safe return.

Anna Madsen, 64, who runs the Love a Dog Rescue and Sanctuary near Farmington, says she fears for her dogs, and for her own life.

Madsen says she arrived home Saturday night to find her house in disarray, with one of her old bank statements and a ransom note stuck to a wall with a knife.

The note said six of her dogs had been taken and demanded six figures in cash or the dogs would be killed.

“I guess they thought I had money,” Madsen told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

Madsen said the missing dogs are Gizmo, a Chihuahua and Yorkie mix that was the sanctuary’s mascot; Moses, a Maltese and poodle mix; Lizzi, a rat terrier; Jack, a black and tan Pincher; Jenna Marie, a white Chihuahua with brown spots; and Snickers, a black Chihuahua.

Labrador Retrievers are still No. 1 in America, for the 18th straight year, but bulldogs are moving up fast, according to registration statistics released today by the American Kennel Club.

More than twice as many Labs were registered in 2008 than any other breed.

Also growing quickly in numbers is the bulldog, which made it to the AKC’s Top Ten list last year for the first time in 70 years. The new figures show it has advanced two more spots, to eighth place.

Here is the full list:

1. Labrador Retriever
2. Yorkshire Terrier
3. German Shepherd
4. Golden Retriever
5. Beagle
6. Boxer
7. Dachshund
8. Bulldog
9. Poodle
10. Shih Tzu

The AKC is celebrating its 125th Anniversary during 2009. In 1884, the year it was founded, the AKC registered only nine breeds, versus the 161 it recognizes today.

They were the Pointer, Chesapeake Bay Retriever, English Setter, Gordon Setter, Irish Setter, Clumber Spaniel, Cocker Spaniel, Irish Water Spaniel and Sussex Spaniel.

These original breeds are all current members of the Sporting Group — dogs bred to help man find and retrieve game.

“I think the comparison of our original nine to the current top 10 illustrates the different needs that dogs fill today,” said AKC spokesperson Lisa Peterson. “In the 1880′s most breeds served a specific purpose or function. Today dogs still serve man and in even more diverse roles — from guide dog to bomb detection K-9 — but most of all, dogs are now companions that ground us to nature in a busy and increasingly technological world.”

Take ”Queer Eye for the Straight Guy,” replace the straight guys with dogs, throw in some firm tugs on the old heartstrings, and you have a basic understanding of the Animal Planet’s soon to premier program, “Underdog to Wonderdog.”

Every episode will feature the “Wonder Team” — made up of a groomer, carpenter, trainer and, of course, good lookin’ and energetic host  — transforming an “unkempt, undernourished, unloved” shelter dog into a well coiffed, housed and trained family dog.

Having not seen it yet, we give it a D for originality, a C for the inadvertent slap in the face to shelter workers, and a B for meaning well.

The show promises to send each dog through “a complete metamorphoses, becoming the dog it was always destined to be. Every shelter dog is rescued, groomed, trained and rehabilitated before finally being placed into a loving home – equipped with its very own custom-designed dog house.”

The show starts Saturday, January 3, at 8 p.m.

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John Schneider has made a radio appeal for the safe return of two puppies stolen with his car from a Los Angeles shopping mall.

“I understand what’s going on in the economy and I understand that… Nobody stole the car because the dogs were in it. If you have been given the gift of two little puppies or even one of our puppies – if you’ve been given the gift out of nowhere… Those puppies really belong to (my children).

Schneider, speaking on Los Angeles radio station KIIS-FM, went on to say:

“I’d very much like for you to consider doing the right thing and getting in touch with Valentine (the DJ of the show on which he appeared), getting in touch with the shelter and getting those puppies back in the Christmas home that they belong in.

“I’m not mad, I’m not gonna point a finger, I’m not gonna tell a tale. I would just like to have our puppies back for Christmas.”

The Yorkiepoo and Yorkshire Terrier – both 10 weeks old — were gifts that Schneider planned to give to his children for Christmas. They were in the back of his Cadillac Escalade when it was stolen from Sherman Oaks’ Fashion Square Mall. The car was later recovered, without the dogs.

Schneider played Bo Duke in the 1980s TV show “The Dukes of Hazzard” and appeared more recently as Superman’s father on the show “Smallville.”

“Superman’s dad would very much like to get his puppies back,” he told the radio station.