Neighbors howl about dog-park plan

Thanks to Mika Sadai for passing along this story. Here's a bit of it:

The pampered pooches of Birmingham have had their own bakery, water bowls
strategically placed throughout the shopping district and the kind of
fashionable attire any discriminating doggie would not be caught dead
without.

Now, they're getting their own park.

But the plan to designate a dog park on the border of Bloomfield Hills irks
some Bloomfield Estates subdivision residents, who are unleashing a lawsuit
on the City of Birmingham. Dog doo -- and the other issues associated with
cavorting canines -- doesn't belong in their neighborhood, they've argued to
Oakland County Circuit Judge Deborah Tyner. She has scheduled a motion for
summary disposition on April 21.

"Dogs bark and they make noise and they stink and they leave things behind
on property," said Raymond Morrow, the Troy-based Bloomfield Estates
Homeowners Association attorney. "The people that live across the street and
next to it, they're aghast at this."

-----------------------
Thanks to attorney Morrow for informing us that dogs bark AND make noise. I did not know this. Ours, a large rottweiler-descended mutt named Rocko, can only bark, so perhaps we should teach him to play the French horn so that he can keep up with the other dogs who are more versatile. He doesn't stink, although he does have a needle-sharp set of king-size choppers, one of which accidentally made an inch-long rip in my right palm a couple of months ago, requiring five stitches. It was entirely my fault. Poor Rocko didn't even know what happened and was very worried about me. I think.