Dog park gives rise to valuable social network

After Valley Stream resident Andrea Comuzzi’s small Maltese, Snowy, squeezed under the fence in her backyard while she was away, she found the Friends of Valley Stream Dogs Facebook page. Within 48 hours she was making arrangements to meet the girl who had found her dog.

The girl had contacted another woman who had posted about losing a Maltese, but when they figured out that this dog did not belong to that woman, the woman responded to Comuzzi’s post.

The incident shows how quickly an owner can locate a dog that winds up on a self-guided tour of the neighborhood. With traffic and other dangers working against a dog on the loose, time is an important factor, said Richard Infield, president of Friends of Valley Stream Dogs. The group unofficially manages Valley Stream’s dog park, working with the village to maintain and improve it, and the network of dog owners that the park created is serving as more than just a social circle.

“The mission is about more than the dog park,” Infield said, explaining that people with lost dogs are using the group’s Facebook page more this year than in the previous two years of its existence. “I think this is unique.”

At least six dogs were reunited with their owners in the past year. The Facebook page has just over 900 likes, and Infield guessed that many more dog owners in the village could find it useful. When a user posts a photo of a lost dog, people share the post and tag friends who live near where it went missing, which provides an immediate boost in visibility that fliers on telephone poles can’t match.

The park was built three years ago, after Infield formed his committee and met with Mayor Ed Fare. After some initial skepticism, support for the idea propelled the project into existence, at a cost of between $70,000 and $80,000.

Its members, who pay a fee to the village, consider it a unique asset to the neighborhood, to themselves and their dogs.

“There’s not another dog park as wonderful as this,” said Rosemary Iaquinta, of Oceanside. She said that she tried the others in the area, but Valley Stream’s beats them all. She said that social contact is important for dogs, and fosters relationships between their owners, too.

“We all know each others’ names, or the dogs’ names,” Iaquinta said. “Mostly the dogs’ names.”

Valley Stream resident Glendalis Moran said she started bringing her 2-year-old dog, Caesar, to the park when he was 6 weeks old. She celebrated his birthday there last month with a special birthday cake for dogs that Caesar shared with all of his friends. She said she has made connections at the park that she wouldn’t have made otherwise, and her visits have become a big part of her life.

“There are regulars that come here, and everybody pretty much knows everybody,” she said.

Denise Barnard is a member of Infield’s six-member committee. She said that many owners don’t know what to do when their dog is lost, so having the group and its Facebook page to contact provides an instant and sizable support network that takes action efficiently. She also noted other efforts that the group organizes, like an annual adoption event and a billboard listing available rescued dogs for adoption that is in the works, and is expected to be installed just outside the park.

“It’s not just about being at the park,” Barnard said. “It’s getting the community involved in all different events, and raising awareness for different things.”