Dog Owners

Year of the Dog reinforces what dog owners already know: In a world where things are not always what they seem, the love of a good pooch is one of the few things we can count on. It's also a film about how pets bring out the unexpected in all of us, a notion riffed on by writer-director Mike White to comically poignant effect. The result may be too calculatedly smug for some tastes, a deadpan version of the old "Happiness is a Warm Puppy" wall plaques. But dog lovers will laugh, cry and rejoice that they're in the presence of a filmmaker who understands.

Ghostwalk By Rebecca Stott The New Yorkers By Cathleen Schine Farrar Straus Giroux/Sarah Crichton Books / 304 pages / $24 The world is composed of cat people and dog people and they know who they are. The urban landscape is rife with dog owners and their pets; dogs often appear to be the mortar that keeps an otherwise alienated and aloof citizenry connected. In Cathleen Schine's sharp, poignant and witty new novel, one might well ask, "Who let the dogs out?" On a tidy and tony little block off Central Park, in the great dog-eat-dog world of uptown Manhattan, people move in and out of their urban anomie led by their pooches, who seem to have a far keener sense of the necessity for human (and canine)

Area dogs may get a park of their own if a group of citizens, with help from the Department of Recreation and Parks, accomplishes its goal of establishing Howard County's first dog park.John Priest, a dog owner and former member of the Kings Contrivance Village Board, invited a core group of interested dog owners in May to discuss a dog park. They want a fenced area where dogs could exercise off the leash, roam freely and socialize with other canines.Today, the group will meet again to organize support and to gather ideas about what the park should include.

If you hear barking in the office today, it's not the co-workers fighting again. Today is the first annual "Take Your Dog to Work Day," and someone at the office just may be participating.Pet Sitters International, based in North Carolina, came up with the idea, which is patterned after the decade-old "Take Your Child to Work Day." The organization began working with the American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and other groups last April to arrange the day for pets."We as pet sitters know how much owners love their dogs," said Cara Myers, manager of member services at Pet Sitters International.

Al Phillips points to his calf and shows you where a 75-pound yellow Lab took a chunk out of his leg and wouldn't give it back.The sunlight seems to illuminate the scar, which is still dark red and nasty-looking six months after a biting incident severe enough to land Phillips in an emergency care facility, woozy from painkillers with his leg still throbbing.Phillips, 45, has been a letter carrier for more than 14 years. He works out of the Parkville branch of the U.S. Post Office. And this week was Al Phillips' moment in the spotlight.

Has Robert E. Lee Park gone to the dogs?Apparently so, for nary a day goes by that the city-owned park isn't visited by a parade of dogs and their owners out for a jaunt along the trails that wind around the park's central landmark, Lake Roland."

Arwell Court in Severn is home to roaming dogs and some owners who fail to control them, endangering others, according to county police, property owners and residents."

25 years ago (week of Oct. 10-16, 1971):Columbia residents and merchants are concerned about the number of commercial vacancies in the town's village centers. Most of the vacancies are due to shops having moved to the Mall in Columbia.50 years ago (week of Oct. 6-12, 1946):Dog owners in the Second District were reminded to observe the dog quarantine which had been put in place after several cases of rabies were discovered. Dogs had to be kept on a leash when on a street or road, and were not allowed to run free when not supervised by their owners.

Not too long ago, the city fathers of Paris, France, ordered dog-owning citizens to clean up after their pets. Paris is a city with lots of dogs, so the problem is everywhere underfoot, so to speak.The Parisian dog owners responded to the order with much the same alacrity as the ocean's waves did to King Canute. Such are the French: normally slavish to authority, but now and then rebellious.Baltimore also has a lot of dogs. Baltimore also has an ordinance similar to the Parisian one. But Baltimoreans, in this regard, have little of the rebel's spirit.

Janet Unfried said she has tried everything.She fenced in her flock of 50 sheep with barbed wire fence. She tried to build a blockade on her 18-acre Jarrettsville farm. She even tried to get Jack the Burro to scare off the dogs that have been killing her sheep.But Jack proved a dud when it came to frightening away sheep-killing dogs, and the fence and blockade haven't worked.In fact, nothing she's done has seemed to help, she said.So she was not happy this week to learn that some Harford County Council members had criticized her Tuesday night for not taking better care of her flock.

To the delight of city dog owners, Baltimore's second dog park opens today in Locust Point. About the same size as the Canton Dog Park, which has been open a few years, the new park, on Andre Street at the edge of Latrobe Park, has a few more bells and whistles. For instance, dogs will be able to splash in a creek-like water feature and scale a hill covered in artificial "canine turf." "We live in the city where there's not a lot of green space, and this is kind of like our yard for our dogs," said Jamie Kelley, president of Friends of the Locust Point Dog Park, a group that helped raise money for the park.

Leash-law fines spark controversy Below is a sampling of comments on the city's leash-law debate from www.baltimoresun.com/unleashed What still really gets to me is that the City Council claims that the fines were a mistake ("City panel votes to cut $1,000 leash-law fine," May 13). If we assume they are telling the truth (pretty large assumption in my opinion, but I digress) then we have to call into question their competence. I understand mistakes happen. However, you can't approve a bill and not look into how this may affect people.

Jackie McGee hadn't exactly put the for-sale sign outside her Federal Hill house, but she was that upset - as were the other dog owners who joined her Tuesday at City Hall. These people might tolerate Baltimore's high crime and struggling schools but they drew the line at the recent jump in fines for dogs caught off-leash - from $100 to $1,000. When McGee was socked with a $1,000 ticket, that fit her definition of too much. "I really wanted to pack my bags and move," she told members of the City Council.

About 100 dog owners gathered Thursday night at Riverside Park Pavilion in Federal Hill to protest the $1,000 fines for owners who allow their animals outside without a leash. Animal control officers began issuing the costly citations this month. The amount is 10 times the previous fine for first-time offenders. City Councilman Edward L. Reisinger held an open forum where he and Councilman William H. Cole IV listened to dozens of dog owners, who called the new fines "excessive" while arguing for off-leash early-morning hours in city parks.

Rude dog owners must be stopped I want to applaud the city for finally taking action against out-of-control dog owners in Mount Vernon who do not respect our parks ("Dogs on the run," March 20). I am a long-term resident of Mount Vernon and love my neighborhood dearly. I have watched as some dog owners have let their dogs recklessly destroy our once-beautiful common areas and parks. West Park, two blocks from my house, has become stripped of grass and often looks and smells like a canine toilet.

Animal control officers and police patrolled the park at Mount Vernon Square this week, responding to complaints from residents who say some dog owners allow their pets to run wild and destroy flower beds. It was the third time in 10 days that animal control officers visited the park and cited dog owners who either did not have their animals on a leash or failed to clean up after them. Police assisted in the latest call because animal control officers do not have the power to detain, and many pet owners left the area during the first two raids, according to Bob Anderson, director of animal control for Baltimore City.

Budget cuts strain services families need In her column on state budget cuts, Jean Marbella wonders what a 5 percent cut to child care and family support programs will look like ("Yes, they're paper cuts, but they can go deep," Oct. 16). I can tell her. Picture a teenage mother in a Family Support Center learning parenting and job skills. Think of a working family getting help finding and evaluating child care. Imagine a classroom full of child care providers learning how to plan activities that enhance early learning and school readiness.

What does it take to build a dog park? A fence and ground cover amenable to a pooper-scooper? Mayor Sheila Dixon's plan to spend $150,000 to design and build a dog park in Locust Point sounds positively extravagant, especially if the city has to absorb serious cuts in state funding. Have the dog owners in this South Baltimore neighborhood considered holding a fundraiser to help finance the changes to Latrobe Park to accommodate their pets' needs to run off-leash? They definitely should before the city puts up public dollars to finance this puppy park.

Mayor Sheila Dixon plans to announce today that the city is spending $150,000 to design and build a dog park in Latrobe Park, a grassy field wedged between Fort Avenue and Interstate 95 in Locust Point. The site for the new park is already a destination for dog owners from nearby neighborhoods, many of whom have been clamoring for a fenced-in area to exercise their pets. "You have a lot of young professional people moving in who don't have children," said City Councilman Edward L. Reisinger, who represents the area.

Baltimore officials closed a footbridge at Robert E. Lee Park yesterday, shutting a passageway to one of the city's most popular dog-walking areas. An independent contractor recently completed a structural assessment of the bridge and identified several areas of concern. Although the park is in Baltimore County, it is owned by the city. It sits north of Mount Washington, adjacent to Lake Roland near Falls Road and Lakeside Drive. Word of the bridge's closure spread throughout the park by late evening, as dozens of dog walkers were forced to brainstorm future plans.