Saturday, January 1, 2011
A flash of fur, then the inevitable thud. A driver hits a dog, but instead of stopping speeds away.
My column is a light-hearted look at a dog's world, and there shouldn't be anything to take away from that. But I have a bone to pick, pardon the pun. I cannot get the incident out of my mind, and I am asking readers for help and advice: What would you have done? Here's the story: Recently my 12-year-old daughter was a passenger in a car full of kids going out for a snack, and the middle-aged adult driver hit a dog. People make mistakes. Things happen in a flash. She probably never saw the pup run in front of her car. I understand that. It's a sad feeling to injure an animal that was running unleashed and loose, because the dog owner likely is at fault. It is the owner's responsibility to keep a dog safe and under control. But that's not…
Saturday, December 25, 2010
What do Floridians do during Christmas vacation week? Take the dogs and children to the beach, of course.
TIERRA VERDE - Our trip to the only dog park in the Tampa Bay area with a designated beach for canines started with a few complications that made the day interesting. My wife got called in to work, which threw a wrench in my gears. My question ... did I really want to drive all the way out to Fort De Soto Beach with my daughter in charge of the dogs in the back? Answer: Why not? We kidnapped my nephew, Josh (he prefers the term 'surprise adoption'), for the day, and off we went. I'm probably going to get in trouble with my sister, but our breakfast consisted of Pringles, Snickers with almonds, Funyums, Pepsi and Diet Coke with lime for me. Yell at me for bad parenting later; we were on an adventure, not taking a test. The drive from our …
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Meet registered dog breeder Roy Wilson, who will take his canines -- and pet lovers -- on a different adventure in the Tampa Bay area each week.
My family belongs to a pair of Siberian Huskies named Tova and Cubby. They are rescue dogs that we got through the St. Pete chapter of the Siberian Husky Rescue Foundation. Tova was saved from an abusive home, and it took a lot of patience and quite a few snips to get her to trust again. My other Siberian, Cubby, is a very lucky dog, as it were. He was found on the side of the road in a part of the country where coyotes, hawks and alligators are seen on a regular basis. Welcome to my world. I have been chosen to write this column because of my love for dogs, Siberian Huskies being my breed of choice. No, it has nothing to do with the movies, "Snow Dogs" or "Eight Below." I was a registered Siberian Husky breeder long before the …
The tables were far from heavy enough for me to anchor my Siberians, so I had to hold onto my little titans while doing my impersonation of a dog sled.
My family and I were all packed up and ready to head out to Fort DeSoto Park's well-regarded, dog-friendly beach when my wife, a U.S. postal worker and weather hound, informed us of nasty, impending weather on the St. Pete side of town. One thing about living in the St. Petersburg-Tampa Bay area, there is no shortage of things to do with our little fur balls, no matter the weather. So we dropped those plans for some indoor activities with the dogs. I decided to check out O'Brien's Irish Pub, at 701 W. Lumsden Rd., in Brandon, and meet friends, who head there for the Yappy Hour. There were a few patrons having a cool one while their dogs socialized with other Canine-Americans on the patio area. I asked when Yappy Hour started and got a few …
What a huge dog park it is, with a small dog area as large as the entire North Shore Dog Park in St. Pete.
It was a little too late to be traveling and I didn't feel like arguing with my pups about being kept on a leash. That's right, I said arguing with my pups. They will do exactly that when they want to be heard. I don't know about a lot of other breeds and their means of communication, but a Siberian Husky will look you in the eyes and give a series of woo-woos and wah-wahs like they are actually talking to you. Anyway, we went in search of the Mango Dog Park right where Highway 579 meets Highway 574 in Seffner. It's a dog park that gets high marks from groups that rate these public places for pups to roam leash-free. We got there about an hour and a half before dusk, relatively late, but it was very busy. There were about 60 to 70 dogs …
Margo Rose
7:46 am on Saturday, January 1, 2011
Quick thinking on her feet is obviously not her strong suit. I am resisting the urge to say she just didn't care. The one who "doesn't care" is the owner of the dog if indeed the owner did dump that dog in our little town of Gulfport, which seems to be becoming a destination city for dumped dogs. Our dog-friendly reputation makes desperate people make wrong-headed decisions. I see many dogs now, … more ›