New Canine-ites

Safety a Concern for Repeat-Offender Roaming Chocolate Lab Near Merritt

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The safety of a chocolate Labrador retriever who lives near the Merritt Parkway is a concern for animal control officers, as the dog continually is getting off property and wandering the neighborhood. The animal was picked up twice on the morning of April 4 in the area of Gerdes and White Oak Shade Roads—the latter a street where residents say motorists regularly speed—and then again this past Monday, said Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt. The animal is licensed, she said. “This is now a serious situation with this dog roaming because White Oak Shade is right by the Merritt Parkway there, and the dog will get hit sooner or later,” Kleinschmitt told NewCanaanite.com. The lab is older and its owners have an invisible fence that doesn’t work, she said.

Animal 411

VIDEO: Abandoned Puppy ‘Señor’ Well-Loved at New Canaan Vet

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The staff at New Canaan Veterinary Hospital is facing the bittersweet prospect of saying “goodbye” to the abandoned Chihuahua puppy who came to them malnourished, shocked and screaming with fear after being left outside CVS on March 20. In the three weeks since, the approximately six-month-old puppy known here as “Señor” or “Señor Friend” (after initially taking on the simple name “Friend”) has been treated at the Vitti Street vet for demodectic mange and they’re getting his weight up—and he’s also getting a whole lot of TLC. Dr Paul Potenza and Senior at New Canaan Veterinary Hospital
“We had to give him some injections for his skin and he really reacted because he was so afraid and within two days, he started acting like this, holding onto us, letting us love him,” said Dr. Paul Potenza, moments before shooting the video above with us. “Now when [Technician] Michelle [Galanek] walks out of the room he starts to cry because he wants her back.”

It isn’t clear who abandoned the pup. A woman who works at a Lantern Ridge Road home found him outside the CVS on Park Street in the afternoon of March 20—about three Thursdays ago.

Animal 411

New Canaan Police Respond to Report of Dog Left in Hot Car

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New Canaan Police on Thursday afternoon responded to a call that a dog had been left in a car on Summer Street on a hot day, according to a police report. Responding officers determined that the dog was in good shape and not excessively hot, according to Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt. Police, if they’re concerned that the immediate welfare of a dog is in danger will take the dog from a car and charge the animal’s owner with animal cruelty, she said. “It’s not against the law to leave a dog in the car,” she said. “Where problem comes is a dog gets in danger of being overheated—because dogs do not perspire and have no way of cooling themselves down, so they start panting and that can lead to overheating, heat exhaustion and death.”

Two dogs died of exposure to heat in cars in 2012, the last reported cases in New Canaan, she said.

New Canine-ites

Emi the Chow Chow: Sniffing Planters a Favorite Activity

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When New Canaan resident Noriko Hiraga’s Chow Chow died at 15, a rescue group for the ancient breed asked if she’d take on another one, from Long Island—and she said yes. Meet ‘Emi,’ a Japanese female name that means “Bountiful Beauty,” Hiraga said. Emi was five at the time of her move up to New Canaan and is now around 13 years old. Though the Chow Chow has become quite arthritic in the last three years, Emi still enjoys walking downtown—this day in a raincoat—and likes to break up a stroll with a favorite New Canaan pastime, Hiraga said. “She likes to smell every one of the planters,” Hiraga told NewCanaanite.com on the corner of Park and Cherry, where we met Emi.

Animal 411

High Coyote Season Arrives: Sightings on Briscoe, Pocconock, Benedict Hill

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Two more pairs of coyotes were spotted in New Canaan last week—on Briscoe Road, Pocconock Trail and Benedict Hill Road (see interactive map below plotting all 2014 sightings)—the first sightings in April, according to residents and police. Animal Control Officer Maryann Kleinschmitt told NewCanaanite.com this week that the animals have been running in pairs (they mate for life) up to now as they look for food and prepare to den. When that happens—typically in April—New Canaanites will see only the males. “Pretty soon you’re going to see one lone coyote,” Kleinschmitt said (full video here). “If you see them, bang pots and pans together, make sure small dogs or cats are kept home.