A not-so-Shaggy dog story

It’s a sure sign of spring when dog lovers begin to make their way to the dog run in Donaldson Park. This year small-dog owners had a happy discovery, a new section especially for small dogs.

While for many dog owners, the appearance of the small-dog park might seem sudden, there are those for whom it couldn’t arrive soon enough. Case in point: Taffee, the Jack Russell Terrier.

Taffee, who turned ten on March 25, lives across the street from the county park with her owner, Jackie Rhein, and Rhein’s 89-year-old mother, Dot. Taffee was a rescue adopted as a puppy from Animal Rescue Force (ARF) in Perth Amboy. Calling Taffee “the most mellow Jack Russell you’ll ever meet . . . Not your typical Jack,” Rhein says, “We were very lucky to get her.”

On Halloween 2008, that luck seemed to change.

 

That morning, Rhein received a message at work to go to the animal hospital because there had been “an incident with a pit bull.” With lacerations to her ear and neck, requiring two surgeries and insertion of a drain, the dog’s medical bills run to almost a thousand dollars.

 

Ultimately, the incident involved police, a lawyer, a suit for damages to Taffee, visits to mediators in Highland Park and Middlesex County courts, and a Middlesex County court hearing. Losing the court case, Rhein says she thought, “If I can’t win this, I’m going to fight for a small dog park.” So she began calling the Middlesex County Park’s Commission, and asked her dog park friends to do the same, igniting a small grassroots movement on behalf of small dogs.

Donaldson’s dog park was originally planned to have two runs. During public review, neighbors’ concerns about noise and location of the two runs led the parks commission to build a single smaller dog run, according to county parks commissioner Ralph Albanir.

Rhein says she called every Tuesday and Thursday for four to five months. She measured the area with a tape measure and drew a map to show the county what the small dog park could look like. The park, which Rhein says is “almost the exact original of the plan,” was completed four months ago.

The county’s decision to install the small dog park was made last summer and installation began in November 2009. Albanir’s account of the decision process adding the small park differs slightly from Rhein’s: “A number of owners (had) asked if we could find a spot to put an area for small dogs. As we developed and rehabilitated areas of the park, we ended up with a section that lent itself to being the small park.” Albanir acknowledged that the most requests came “sometime in 2009,” after Taffee’s pit bull incident, but didn’t acknowledge Rhein’s role.

 

While Jackie Rhein is happy with the park, she also wants to credit Taffee’s role in getting the second run built. She has made a 12 x 12-inch sign: “Park compliments of a little dog with a big heart – Taffee.” and says she’s spoken to both the Park Ranger and the Middlesex County Engineer. “They have no problem with it.”

 

But Albanir says no to the sign. “It is our policy not to name County parks after people unless it’s for something very special. We get requests to name parks after people every week. We can’t honor every request,” although the policy is not written and Rhein is not asking for the park to be named for Taffee. Other reasons given by Albanir for forbidding the sign were that “There are too many ‘control’ signs in the park already,” and “The sign makes it seem like she paid for the park or built it.”

He does confirm the 2008 incident involving the pit bulls and that the pit bulls and their owners have been banned from the dog park. Park rangers have been instructed, “If they saw the dog… they should report it.”

Rhein has begun a new campaign to get the county to allow her to put the sign up, as testimony to the price her dog had to pay in order to gain a place for small dogs to enjoy the park safely.

 

On the home page of the dog park’s web site at http://hpdogpark.homestead.com is a photo of Rhein with the caption: “Special thanks to Jackie! For her tireless effort dealing with the County to get the small dog park constructed.”

 

Meanwhile, on most days, dog park visitors might run into Rhein and Taffee trying to re-acclimate to the park. She notes, “After the attack, I had to go and hold her and stand near the fence.”