Quick! Bring your dogs to Marie Reed to poop all over the kickballers’ field! Bring them to romp and dig into the baselines where kids from the learning center play! Clearly, this park belongs to dogs and their owners. Never mind there’s only a single coat of paint over “NO” and “AT ANYTIME.” No one paid any attention to the original sign anyway. Never mind there’s an actual dog run up the hill at Walter Pierce. I get it. It’s too far to walk. That would be, like, giving you and your dog way too much exercise. Maybe you’ve heard this all before. I know I have.

FlexPetz, the dog-sharing company I wrote about yesterday, does still plan to come to D.C. following its expansion to Boston, despite the modern-day “witch hunt” set off in Massachusetts (which passed legislation this week banning pet rental companies). This comes by way of a spokesperson named Simon who would not give his last name, says he does not actually work for the company (he’s helping out a friend), but did return my call.

My hunch is the “spokesperson” who called me is Simon Brodie, listed as CEO of a company that—at least at one point—owned FlexPetz, although when I called Simon back he denied this and also declined, again, to provide his last name. Simon Brodie, from Britain (the Simon who called me had a British accent, which I’m sure is a coincidence), pleaded guilty and served time there on false accounting charges. He later moved to San Diego, where he founded Allerca, a company that sets up franchisees to sell controversial, specially-bred hypoallergenic cats for as much as $6,000 each. The company was evicted from its headquarters (also Brodie’s home, according to the San Diego Union Tribune) and has been sued by its landlords for failure to pay rent and by Orange County for loan default.

In addtion, the Union Tribune dug up a few more tidbits in October 2006:

Brodie and two other Brodie-affiliated companies, Cerentis and IntegraAssociates, also defaulted on a $72,280 promissory note, according to Los Angeles County court records. Last year, Brodie tried to raise $500,000 to fund an Allerca subsidiary, animal diagnostics firm GeneSentinel, of which he was chairman, president and chief executive. At the time, GeneSentinel listed assets of $3,000 and debts of $200,000.

This year, Brodie laid off some of the GeneSentinel employees; three former employees allege GeneSentinel owes them thousands of dollars in unpaid wages. Brodie acknowledges wages are owed to an unspecified number of former employees. GeneSentinel has since changed its name to Cyntegra.

Brodie’s connection to PetFlex was originally put together by the blog Itchmo: News for Cats and Dogs, which found his name in an SEC listing for Tetros, Inc. FlexPetz states it is “wholly a subsidiary of Tetros, Inc.” Tetros has since been sold to another company, ColdStar Capital.

Oh, and if FlexPetz does come to D.C., Simon acknowledges it will cost members about $280 a month for four doggy days. The dogs, which Simon says are donated to FlexPetz, are made available for adoption by members who want to be sole owners. All of the dogs in the New York office have been adopted while FlexPetz regroups and rethinks its expansion.

“It’s really a novel concept,” says Simon No-Last-Name. “In D.C., alone, we have two or three people every day who want to sign up.”

Stupid trend alert: FlexCars just aren’t enough. Now we need to rent dogs. Shockingly, someone is willing to make money off this concept, according to a feature in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal. Enter FlexPetz (yes, with a “z”), which has come under fire for its practices in New York, London, and has all but been shut down from opening in Boston by both the city and the state of Massachusetts. No one, so far, has wimpered in D.C., where the FlexPetz Web site says a new outpost is planned for 2008. I have calls and e-mails out to the company, as yet unreturned.

One poster on the Adams Morgan listserv, at least, is interested: “it could be good for a child in a home that can’t full time a dog. Not a dog owner, but curious.”

If you can get beyond the fact that a dog’s not an accessory or that maybe it wouldn’t be so hot for a dog to jump from one family to the next, try and get over how much this costs:

• A monthly Membership Fee of $99.95 which contributes towards providing full care for all the dogs at each FLEXPETZ location.

• Daily Doggy Time charge (Daily Doggy Time is equal to a day, or part of day, you spend with a FLEXPETZ dog) at a rate of $45.00 per day.

• You will be billed for 4 Daily Doggy Times per month. You are not required to take out a Flexpetz for any set number of days, but you will be billed for these minimum four days regardless of actual usage  at a rate of $45.00 per day.

• Your Membership includes a mandatory in-home training/introduction session with a FLEXPETZ trainer….The total cost of this in-home orientation is $150.00

• Most FLEXPETZ locations have a shuttle service that can deliver and collect a FLEXPETZ dog to your home or office. Fees vary by location but are generally $25.00 per single trip.

For those of us who don’t have $500 or so to pretend to have a dog, I suggest going to a shelter, becoming a foster parent to a rescued dog, or, I don’t know, consider making friends with someone who has a dog. And I don’t mean this guy.

(photo by Kalimistuk)

As we mentioned above in our roundup, people here love to argue over anything. Cleveland Park’s message board popped up a musty one this morning over unleashed dogs. I was all ready to snark on this really lame issue until I read a posting by Deidre Flippen. It is perhaps the most heartfelt toe dip into this issue ever:

“I feel the need to respond to the not too infrequent posts about unleashed dogs. I love dogs they are beautiful, fun, playful and just make you feel real good. But since a young school age child many years ago, I have always been afraid of dogs. I lived in NE DC and at that time “German Sheppards” were the rage. They were big and beautiful and most often unleashed when walked by owners. Moreover, even when in a yard with an enclosed fence they prowled and barked scaring me terribly when “walking” to and from school. Even today when I try to do my exercise walks, as a much older person, down and up Connecitcut Ave (sometimes off the avenue), I walk carefully and with caution by homes. And when I see or hear a dog barking, those old fears come back.

Dogs are lovely, and like even cats, must be managed, by their owners who must be responsible dog or cat owners. Let me just say that I was even a reluctant cat owner of 12 years now. I used to be afraid of Cats too. But a friend talked me into saving a stray kitty back then and I regret nary a day. She has all her sharp claws and teeth but is a mostly sweet indoor cat.
Nevertheless, when guests come over I secure her in her own space happily or monitor her with others. Anyone with Cats with claws understands. Such care has to be taken with dogs too both in the home and outside the home. Even on my own block when leaving for work in the back folks are out walking their dogs unleashed. I usually stop and make some kind of visual contact with the owner, let them know I’m there. The expectation is that if their dog is not under control they need to do something. It’s very, very uncomfortable for me. I appreciate the idea of allowing their beloved pets a little natural freedom to walk unleashed on their own steam but it can be potentially harmful or even dangerous to others (and their pets leashed). My experience is that even the sweetest dogs if encountered the wrong way will at first
act to protect their owner. And dog owners who act unresponsibly should understand and follow DC’s rules to protect our community.

So its early in the morning and I’m rambling. But I just want to say that people with dogs unleashed need to be way more sensitive to people who encounter their unleashed beloved dogs. The best thing, leash them when walking, next if you see folks, get them leashed right away and under your control. Just understand that our pets are our responsibility as a
community.

There are so many scary things out there. It seems to me that fear of pets should not be one of them in our community.”