About Dunwoody reporter. (Sandy Springs, GA) 20??-current | View Entire Issue (July 26, 2013)
PET REPORTER area will be dead,” the study reads. City officials said they have listened to dog park users and have come up with a plan for a new dog area in a different part of the park. The new design calls for 1/4 of an acre to 1/3 of an acre for a small dog play area. The main dog park will be di vided into two areas, which will be alter nated every three to four months to allow the land in one area to rest while the oth er is in use. “The overall acreage in the boundaries of the new dog park will be similar in size to the existing dog park, however the new design incorporates a “small dog” park area and a “large dog” park area, and also allows for areas to be closed for recovery and maintenance,” Mullen said. Dog park users say the shade at the current location is a large part of its ap peal and something they feel simply can not be replaced. “The best part of the dog park is the trees,” said Samantha Suggs, another reg ular visitor. “I’d say it’s an easy 10-degree difference, and just makes it so much nic er for the dogs on those summer days.” Sweezey said she doesn’t think the dog parks’ opponents have taken the time to look at all the positive things the park brings to Dunwoody. Sweezey said the Brook Run Dog Park has repeatedly been named by publications such as Atlan ta Magazine as the best dog park in the city. She worries that by moving the dog park, Dunwoody is squandering one of its greatest assets. “It gives a really positive image to Dunwoody. People now know where Dunwoody is because it’s the city that has the best dog park,” Sweezey said. The Brook Run Dog Park Association holds monthly clean-up days, she said. Sweezey updates a Facebook page for the dog park and sends out newsletters. Re cently, volunteers from the dog park col lected 200 pounds of dog food to donate to an animal shelter that was running low on supplies, Sweezey said. “It truly is a community. It’s a cli che, but it really is,” Sweezey said. “The bonds that have occurred out there over the years are phenomenal.” PHOTOS BY MELISSA WEINMAN Samantha Suggs said her German Shepherds enjoy being able to run around in the shade at Brook Run Dog Park. There are dog parks in several other parks around metro Atlanta, including: Morgan Falls Overlook Park 200 Morgan Falls Road Sandy Springs, 30350 Keswick Park 3524 Keswick Drive Chamblee, 30341 Piedmont Park 1320 Monroe Drive Atlanta, 30309 Sweezey visits the park every day with her dog, Bama. On a recent afternoon, she walked around with a few plastic bags in her pocket, stopping every so often to pick up dog waste. She greeted a woman and her daughter, walking their new pup py through the park, and gave them her business card. She told them to call her if they had any questions about the dog park or wanted advice on puppy-rearing. Before long, two German Shepherds came running into the park and Sweezey greeted them enthusiastically. “At any given time I can usually name most of the dogs in the park,” Sweezey said. Suggs, the German Shepherds’ owner, said she’s met a lot of people at the dog park, including Sweezey, who now baby sits Suggs’ dogs when she’s out of town. “People just come up and start talk ing to you. You have your dogs in com mon. It just opens up the conversation,” Suggs said. Lamont Robeson is another regular, who comes with his Shar Pei, Maserati, nearly every day. Robeson said before he adopted him, Maserati was abused, and it has taken a while for him to trust peo ple again. “Everybody’s really nice,” he said. “This is a good place for him to be.” For some, the dog park is more signif icant than just a place to let their dogs run around. Gantt said her fiance, Bryan Rosen- grant, proposed to her at the dog park in March. “We’ve lived up the street from the park for about two years and we go to the park almost every day,” Gantt said. She said the dog park is a special place for the couple. They spend about an hour there each day sitting on the benches to gether as their dogs run around and play. But Gantt said she was “totally surprised” when on one of these evening visits to the dog park her boyfriend got down on one knee, and pulled a diamond ring out his pocket. “He wanted to make sure it was at the park so the whole family could be in cluded, which I thought was adorable,” Gantt said. 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