Prospect Park

The Daily Plant : Tuesday, March 18, 2003

DOGGIES AND DOUGHNUTS IN THE BRONX

What's more fun than an office birthday party? More lovable than a national holiday? More playful than new toner for the office FAX machine? Finding your office taken over by a group of wonderful, good-hearted cats and dogs looking for new friends and homes. On March 12, 2003 at St. James Recreation Center in the Bronx, the Center for Animal Care and Control (CACC), the Urban Park Rangers and the Bronx Borough Commissioner's office hosted the second Parks Pet Adoption Day. In attendance were Bronx Borough Commissioner Dorothy Lewandowski, Acting Director of the CACC Julian Prager, Ranger Director Sara Hobel, Bronx Chief of Recreation Iris Rodriquez, Bronx Parkies and eight beautiful animals.

"It's a great collaborative effort between the Rangers and the CACC," said Commissioner Lewandowski. "We look forward to opening this opportunity to the public."

Each Parks' borough is holding its own Pet Adoption Day, an initiative started by Parks & Recreation Commissioner Adrian Benepe after his family opened their hearts to Kicia, their new kitten from the CACC. The newest Parks employees to adopt Pets from the CACC include Darlene Mitchell, a Playground Associate/After-school Coordinator at St. James Recreation Center who adopted a frisky eight-year-old Pomeranian named Lunit, and Bernadette White of Bronx Maintenance and Operations who snagged a gorgeous baby Rotweiller-Beagle mix. Felix Rodriquez, an APSW in Van Cortlandt-Pelham Bay Park, adopted an eight week-old mixed breed beagle. Nora Andrew, a committed member of St. James Recreation Center, fell in love with Lucky, a five-year-old orange tiger cat.

Many talented CACC staff and volunteers were on-site to offer new pet owners tips about spaying and neutering, pet health insurance, and good care practices and techniques. Securing caring homes for animals is a major goal of the CACC. Besides the pet adoption initiative, the CACC would like to remind all New Yorkers that April 5th is Tag Day, a wonderful opportunity to ensure that every lost animal will find its way back to its owner's home.

Parks & Recreation will host three more Pet Adoption Days throughout the spring. An adoption day has been scheduled in Staten Island at Clove Lake Park on Wednesday, April 23 and in Brooklyn at Prospect Park on May 15. Each event will feature refreshments, trained adoption professionals, and a lovable band of dogs and cats looking for new friends and family. For more information about pet adoption in each borough, Parkies can contact the Urban Park Rangers at 212-360-2774. For more information about the CACC, call 1-888-SPAY-NYC or visit www.nycacc.org.

Written by Sarah Kay

QUOTATION FOR THE DAY

"In the United States there is more space
where nobody is than where anybody is.
This is what makes America what it is."

Gertrude Stein
(1874-1946)