Twenty-five people and sixteen dogs walked with Somerville Dog Owners Group in the MSPCA-Angell Walk for Animals, Sunday, September 13, in the Boston Common. It was our largest team ever in the Walk for Animals, and our team was the largest team fielded by a dog-owner group! We were one of the top fundraising teams in the Walk!

I am grateful to everyone who walked with us and who sponsored our team or one of our team members. We all appreciate that we were inspired to do our best for the MSPCA because we were competing with dog-owner groups from other cities and towns to help promote the Coalition of Massachusetts Dog Owner Groups (MassDOG). The Arlington Dog Owners Group (A-DOG) deserves an honorable mention: A-DOG recruited eleven team members and raised almost $1600 online. Altogether, the teams affiliated with the Coalition of Massachusetts Dog Owner Groups raised over $4,800 for the Massachusetts Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals!

Representatives from the Coalition of Massachusetts Dog Owner Groups (MassDOG) met Massachusetts Attorney General, Martha Coakley, and her dogs at the Walk for Animals (Photo by Maeghan Silverberg).

Pictured with Martha are David Monahan, Middlesex Fells Dog Owner Group (FellsDOG); Michele Biscoe, Somerville Dog Owners Group (som|dog); and Susan Doctrow, Arlington Dog Owners Group (A-DOG). No political endorsement is implied; On behalf of the Somerville Dog Owners Group, I hope that all the candidates for the Massachusetts seat on the U.S. Senate reach out to dog owners and dog-owner groups!

A Somerville dog was named "Dog of the Year" at the Walk for Animals! Granby, owned by Julie and Steve Roix, is blind. Almost two years ago he lost an eye to glaucoma, and he lost his second eye, also to glaucoma, this past spring. I didn't get a good picture of Granby at the walk, but here's a video of him getting into a child-proof cabinet!