Thursday, April 19, 2018

A Ruff Day on the Job

My column from May 13, 2017.


One of the challenges of working as a journalist is the hours. News does not happen from 9 to 5 Mondays through Fridays. Journalists cover meetings in the evening, events on the weekend and often work on holidays.
Since it was my turn to help cover the weekend shift last Saturday, my editor asked me to attend the grand opening of the Randy C. Fiegel Memorial Dog Park at the Dodge County Humane Society. The event included vendors offering pet food or animal-related services, two bounce houses, a burger fry, bake sale, tours of the shelter and demonstrations by dog trainers.
A brisk wind offered an occasional chill, but sunshine, talking to people and meeting their dogs, visiting shelter cats and taking photos of dogs gleefully running in the dog park more than made up for working on a weekend.
I finally met fellow Yooper Meredith Winning in person. She serves on the DCHS board, and we not only share a homeland, but an amazing friend. I introduced myself to Diane Kitchen, recognizing her from years of attending events at Prairie View Elementary School while my son was a student there.
Dr. Jeff Hookstead also attended the grand opening. He offers his services as a veterinarian to the DCHS, and I’ve witnessed how calm and patient he can be with animals in distress. While my cat Zoopie accepts me as her human, she is not friendly to other people and barely tolerates my son. Plus, she dislikes both car rides and getting shots (to be fair, who really enjoys getting shots), and acts like a feral animal at the vet. I also ran into Mary Fitzgerald, attending the grand opening as a Beaver Dam Chamber of Commerce ambassador.
While I did not get her name, I met the mother of Madelyn Hartman after taking a photo of her on the bouncy house slide. Originally from Juneau, we had a nice conversation about the benefits of living in Wisconsin with all the amazing cheese and local meat markets. We watched her daughters make laps through the bounce house and down the slide.
I also met several dogs. While I consider myself more of a cat person, and wish my lease and Zoopie would allow me to adopt a shelter cat, I appreciate the unconditional love offered by dogs. I minded my manners and asked for the handler’s permission before offering the dogs my hand to sniff in hopes of being permitted to pet them. Blaze, an enormous Great Dane, allowed me to stroke his silky head. While he looked a bit like Marmaduke, his dignified good behavior revealed why he is a champion show dog. I met Duke, a two-year-old pointer-lab mix, and Zeus, a 4-year-old Doberman Pinscher who demonstrated his nose work skills.
The ribbon cutting and dedication of the dog park filled me in on the history of the Dodge County Humane Society and the evolution of the dog park project.
To learn more about it, visit http://www.dchs-wi.org/. If you can, make a donation or volunteer to support this very worthy cause.

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