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January
16, 2005
The Telegraph - Nashua,
NH
Dog park will help in community building
Author: Jay S. Tropea, Treasurer Nashua Dog Owners Group
Recent articles and letters have highlighted efforts
to establish a public dog park in Nashua. As treasurer of the Nashua
Dog Owners Group, I am writing in support of those efforts, and
to shed some perspective on our mission and share my own experience
in this endeavor.
Our mission is broader than the dog park, though that
is our primary objective. It is part of a greater effort to improve
the quality of life for area canines and their caregivers.
Others have documented the benefits of socialized
dogs in the community, so I will not address those here. I also
want to make it clear that we do not seek to take an existing city
park and convert it solely to a dog park.
Our canine friends are pressed into service every
day. Last October, a police dog located a missing elderly woman
in Manchester, effectively saving her life. Others are serving in
Iraq, where their handlers are having trouble securing proper food
for their diet.
In my neighborhood recently, a dog alerted its owner
to an intruder.
Dogs provide companionship and comfort to the elderly
and the lonesome, and assist physically challenged people seeking
to live productive lives in the mainstream. They help teach children
about responsibility and compassion. They give us their companionship
and their affection everyday, and ask little in return - some food,
a comfortable place to lie (preferably close to their master), and
some play time.
As a regular attendee at the Sunday dog play group
at Mine Falls Park, I see more than dogs playing together and getting
necessary exercise. I see friends and neighbors coming together,
laughing and socializing over animal antics too funny to describe.
It is a funny place where people are known by which
dog owns them, and I am not offended by being known sometimes only
as "Sasha's dad."
I am witnessing community, more so than when I vote
or attend a recycling drive!
I am sure those with children already understand this
concept through youth sports, etc., but it is a new and enjoyable
experience for me and, I suspect, for others.
The interesting part is that my dog has led me to
activism. How ironic in that I thought I was holding the leash.
However, my point is that I now feel more connected
to the community through the dog play group, and I know that a permanent
city dog park will lead to more than tired, happy, socialized dogs.
It is another avenue for community building, where
residents with something in common will gather and commune.
Sasha's dad will be there, and he hopes to meet you
there as well. I guess my dog and I are both teaching each other
new tricks.
Copyright, 2005, The Telegraph, Nashua, N.H. All Rights
Reserved.
Record Number: 101160016
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