dogs

I have been meaning to write this post for a while. Tonight pushed me over the edge.

I have a 13+ year old dog who is literally on her last legs. Luckily I live across from Highland Park in the Fort Hill neighborhood of Roxbury. Since I moved in over 2 years ago I have been walking Ramona at Fort Hill everyday. There is a small dog community who let their dogs off leash up there. A majority of them are very nice. I keep Ramona on a leash most of the time because she cannot really run anymore, but in her prime I used to run her at dog parks all over the city: Franklin Park, Peter's Hill, Fresh Pond, S. End etc.

Penny Cherubino photographs a waiting dog outside Salumeria Italiana in the North End.

Maija: In Allston

Rhea Becker posts photos from last night's Yappy Hour at the Liberty Hotel.

Evan reports on the Bay Colony Dog Show at the Bayside Expo Center:

... A woman brought by her fawn-colored French Bulldog and fielded questions. Now, this woman was frazzled and took this a but too seriously, I think. Someone asked her questions about the range of color (I myself haven't seen a fawn colored Frenchie in person). She replied that it runs the whole gamut, from white to brindle to bluish. "Black is unacceptable," she said. This surprised a few people, since we had seen what looked to be black Frenchies in competition. "Well, if you can find that one white hair or a bluish hue, that's fine. Black is unacceptable, " she stated once again, defiantly. "Unacceptable, as in..." the man was beginning to ask. "UNACCEPTABLE," she repeated, as if the man himself were about to hook two black Frenchies up in his back yard and start a puppy mill that afternoon. ...

Jeff Cutler reports on the phenomenon of new mothers leashing their dogs to their baby's strollers, at least as observed on Newbury Street:

... I'm pretty certain if a life-size Chuck Wagon truck or a wild deer dashed through downtown, these dogs would be galloping across busy streets dragging mothers, infants and strollers through traffic to certain doom.

And if not doom, definitely destruction.

Where did common sense go off the rails? The likelihood of the Chuck Wagon or the deer showing up on Newbury Street in Boston is a fantasy. But a pickup truck with dogs in the back could happen. And the reality of nearly identical mommy/stroller/puppy combos on the other side of the street is common. ...

PRESERVING Boston Common should mean much more than keeping the grass green ("Large events may become uncommon at city's beloved park," Page B1, March 20). The Common was America 's very first public grounds and the city should not regulate away the right of the people to assemble peaceably there for the sake of a greener lawn. If greener grass is what the city wants, they can achieve that by not allowing dogs to urinate on the grounds. Boston Parks Department maintenance people have told anyone who asks that dog urine, not peaceable assemblies, is what damages the grass most.

A couple of dogs playing at the Arboretum today.

Join Boston Pride for the first-ever Paws For Pride on Saturday, June 2, 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. at Faneuil Hall.

This all-new Puppy Pride will feature a Community Costume Contest with prizes for "Best in Size" (small, medium and large dogs) and a grand prize for "Best in Show." There's a limit to 100 dogs so pre-registration is strongly recommended!

Click here to Register! (and to see the Contest Rules.)

Last night, the Boston Parks Department hosted a public meeting to discuss renovations to the Phillips Street Park (which is on Phillips Street between Garden and Anderson on Beacon Hill).

The meeting was led by Angie Murray, project manager, from Boston Parks. Also in attendance: Claire Couric Batchelor from CBA Landscape Architects.

Ms. Murray is planning a three-meeting planning process. During this first meeting, she opened the discussion to the audience to discuss what is liked and not liked about the park.

Universal consensus from the group:

There's less chance the dog will be carried off by a coyote. Police report that's what happened early this morning to a terrier running off leash in woods off River Street in Mattapan:

... The coyote and the terrier were not located.

Big fight over whether dog owners should be allowed any time to let their dogs off leash at Winthrop Park. The Park and Recreation Commission is involved. So is the Brookline Green Dog Committee (What, no Blue Dog Committee?). Even Brookline's relations with neighboring communities are at stake: Are Boston and Newton dogs sneaking in? And if so, should Brookline dog owners be forced to pay for leash stickers to prove residence?

... Representatives from both camps attended Monday's Park and Recreation Commission meeting, which unintentionally turned into a mini-public hearing on the matter and a warm-up for what promises to be a heated battle in December as both sides said they will refuse to back down ...

On Boonville Blog, Jeff sees town government run amok:

... This, my friends, is local government. It is run by people with too much damn time on their hands. I can't help but thinking that the people trying to limit the hours just need to relax and let these dogs, who live in a cramped city, have their 4 hours a day to run around and sniff. ...

Earlier:
Should dogs be allowed to run wild in state parks?

DogBoston is aghast at the possibility the state might require dogs to be leashed at all times in state parks. Instead, the group wants certain areas in parks set aside so dogs can form killer packs socialize and frolic.

As a non-dog-owner, I have to say, short of finding an opossum staring at you from your trash, nothing quite stuns you into sudden wakefulness like having a giant, unleashed dog bound right at you on what you thought was a peaceful saunter along a path in the woods at Millennium Park (which granted, is not a state park, but still).

We have our beach back! The tourists and teens are gone, very gone. The beach is empty. To windy for all but the hardiest wind surfers - is that you Senator Kerry - and the local dog walkers.

Byron loves the beach, he enjoys digging in the sand, barking at the seagulls, and rolling in all those smelly things the ocean specializes in throwing on to the beach. Our beach...

Just wanted to drop a note here for the launch of the revamped dog boston web site.

http://www.dogboston.com/blog/