Barcs

Leon Fleisher drolly dubs the program "duets for pets" — a concert to benefit Baltimore Animal and Rescue Care Shelter Inc. The celebrated pianist will be joined by his wife, Katherine Jacobson, an accomplished keyboard artist in her own right, for the June 4 fundraiser at the Peabody Institute. Both are on the faculty there, Fleisher for more than 50 years. The two musicians are longtime supporters of BARCS. "We're very impressed with the staff and their deep commitment to giving animals a chance at a new lease on life," Jacobson says.

On December 2, 2009, David Allen Monath A graveside service will be held 10AM Thursday at Parkwood Cemetery. Memorial contributions in David's name may be made to the Baltimore Animal Rescue and Care Shelter, Inc. (B.A.R.C.S.) 301 Stockholm Street, Baltimore, Maryland 21230. Memory tributes may be sent to the family at www.evansfuneralchapel.com

Veda "Pat" Allen was certainly shocked, even disgusted, by what happened to Phoenix, the pit bull puppy doused with gasoline and then set on fire in Southwest Baltimore last month. But the aftermath shocked her more, as people in the city and around the country shed tears, signed petitions, raged on blogs and raised more than $26,000 to find the dog's killers. When her 22-year-old son was shot in the head in 1992 in what city police said was a motiveless crime, she wonders, where were these people with their outrage, their tears, their checks?

A young pit bull nicknamed Phoenix that was doused with gasoline and set afire in Baltimore on Wednesday died Sunday morning at a Pennsylvania veterinary hospital. Staff at Metropolitan Veterinary Associates outside Philadelphia said the dog, which was about a year old, was put down because her kidneys were failing. Burns that covered 95 percent of her body caused so much swelling around her face and rear quarters that, according to nurse Julie Hirsch, the dog was "barely recognizable."

A female pit bull that was doused with gasoline and set afire in Baltimore on Wednesday is reported to be badly burned but stable at a Pennsylvania veterinary hospital. "She's actually holding her own right now. Her blood pressure is good, and she's on pain meds," said Holly Helfer, a veterinary technician at Swan Harbor Animal Hospital in Federal Hill, where the animal was originally treated. The staff there was getting regular updates from the Pennsylvania facility, which Helfer said asked not to be identified.

The dog scampered back and forth in the small room, true to its name. "I call her Frisky," said the man at the other end of the leash. Typing into a computer, the intake employee at the Baltimore Animal Rescue & Care Shelter went through the litany of questions, from age (2 1/2 ) to breed (Doberman) to spayed (no), before getting to the question of why he was giving up the dog. "I lost my job," he said. As the economy goes to the dogs, the dogs - and the cats and the guinea pigs and the ferrets and seemingly every kind of other pet - are going to the pound.

A 52-year-old caregiver at a group home for the developmentally disabled was arrested yesterday and charged with manslaughter and abuse of a vulnerable adult in connection with the death of a resident who was scalded while taking a bath. Baltimore County police arrested Carol A. Washington after a monthlong investigation into the death of John Raymond Gerwig, 53. Gerwig lived at a Baltimore Association for Retarded Citizens group home in the 2400 block of Potterfield Road in Woodlawn. Washington was the chief supervisor at the home, where she also lived.

MOST OF Baltimore's historic Seton Institute was torn down years ago to make way for a business park, but a remnant of it has just reopened for a new use. An old gymnasium that was added in the 1960s to the institute - a hospital run by the Sisters of Charity - has been recycled as part of a $2.9 million employment center for the Baltimore Association for Retarded Citizens (BARC). Representatives from the nonprofit agency joined state Comptroller William Donald Schaefer, former Baltimore County Executive Dennis F. Rasmussen and other dignitaries this month to dedicate the center, which occupies an 8-acre parcel in the Seton Business Park.

TOWSON -- Growing up, Jerry Bullinger knew his next-door neighbor was different, but it didn't matter. The boy did everything the other kids did, and nobody made fun of him.Bullinger, 51, didn't realize that his neighbor was mildly retarded until he began working with people like him. Indirectly, the youthful experience may have shaped Bullinger's professional life as an advocate for the disabled and director of employment services for the Baltimore Association...