It was a little after noon today. A dozen dogs were in the entering and exiting process at the Genesee Dog Park. Imagine our amazement when we saw a dog -- a puppy, actually -- scampering without a leash along the park perimeter on South Genesee Street.
As Jay Leno said to Hugh Grant during the famous 1995 Tonight Show interview after the star of Four Weddings and a Funeral was arrested on solicitation charges: "What the hell were you thinking?"
In the chaos of the comings and goings of the off-leash park, the untethered puppy could have -- and fortunately did not -- run into the path of a car traveling along South Genesee Street. Anybody familiar with the area knows that drivers have lead-foot tendencies when driving on Genesee. If the producers of the Tru TV program Speeders hooked up with the Seattle Police Department and ticketed the offenders, the Citizens for Off Leash Areas (COLA) would have revenues for a lifetime of poo bags. Does this sound like the place to let your canine go off-leash commando?
No dog owner wants to see any puppy splattered on the pavement on Genesee. The city of Seattle has a mandatory leash law, Seattle Municipal Code 18.12.080(B)(12) (Animals running at large prohibited):
Any person who takes a dog into an off-leash area must have physical control of the dog by means of an adequate leash when entering and leaving the off-leash area and must maintain voice control over the dog at all times while in the off-leash area.
As Paulie Walnuts would say, "Capiche?"
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