It's time for the City of Ithaca to catch up with the rest of the planet and designate a dog park for our families to enjoy. Doggie guardians who have had it with their marginalization in Ithaca formed a group a few years ago to rectify the situation.

It has been a hard row to hoe, but somehow, dog walkers who recognized and insisted on the vital necessity of daily unleashing their charges chose the ideal, underutilized portion of Allan H. Treman State Marine Park for just such a purpose.

For a time, an unspoken arrangement that the authorities, both city and state, would generously turn a blind eye to the goings on at this canine heaven on Earth.

Sure, an unrealistic proposition of an acre or so of fenced in portion of the park, with access to neither shade nor water, was extended and dutifully turned down, and much wind was made about an unofficial "experimental basis dog park" at said location, provided that users complied with poop-scoop requirements and so long as no injuries resulted in liability issues.

Despite the doggie users and the very active and considerable number of this constituency holding up their end of the bargain, it seems that for now, our dog park is closed.

It seems as though an attorney who docked his boat at the marina became irritated upon seeing the locals enjoying nirvana with their pets, and felt inclined to lodge a formal complaint.

Indeed, this out-of-towner had such a hankering for trivial litigation that he threatened to sue the City of Ithaca should the leash law remain unenforced at the marina.

Since the said threat, police have once again resumed issuing warnings and tickets. And so rang the death knell for our much-prized dog park.

Dogs are pack animals and don't have nearly as much fun trying to socialize when tethered. Additionally, dog aggression or dominance behavior is much more likely. The "Dog Whisperer," Cesar Millian of National Geographic Channel fame, named adequate exercise as the number-one prerequisite for a manageable dog. He refers to the lack thereof as "layer upon layer" of confined energy, amounting to the condition of hyperactivity at home.

Take it from me, I have raised, without the aid of drugs, a hyperactive dalmatian-black lab cross that, for five years, was no walk in the park. It doesn't take a doctorate from Cornell, or even one iota of personal experience with dogs, to acknowledge the gospel truth of Cesar Millian's theory.

Just how long are Ithacans, who are trying with all their might to be responsible dog walkers, expected to wait for a place at which they can engage in their chosen activity?

From my own 30 years of experience, we remain the single, hapless, isolated "club" of local recreation seekers without anywhere to go and entirely without clout in city chambers. For a utopian year or two, all was as it should be, and though it's true that our leash ordinance needs revamping, for the time being, we are up against an attorney seemingly intent on making our lives miserable.

Suppose we lived in a world where the authorities focused their energies on identifying and apprehending those who torment their dog (s) by chaining them to fixtures in the yard until the chain becomes a part of the dog's neck? How about assisting the stretched-thin humane officers trying to prevent such crimes?

Why not help our park police search out the imbeciles who "waste" their dogs, allowing them to perish in the most hideous fashion in parked vehicles?

Perhaps park police could lend a hand joining wildlife officials policing violators of hunting regulations. They'd be of immensely more service to society simply patrolling state parking lots for DMV infractions, and when they've finished with the cars, they could continue on the boats.

Litter, intoxication, anything but the big waste of resources invested for busting Sam and Fido out for their daily constitutional romp around the greenway.

Incidentally, why is it that so long as your dog is instrumental in the killing of another creature be it a duck or squirrel, that it's permissible for that dog to go leashless? There are countless more non-working dogs, valued merely for their allegiance and loving nature, who are every bit as worthy of the freedom to run as are the "utility" breeds.

As for pet walkers, without a wealthy, landed benefactor to step forward and bestow upon Ithaca a dog park, I'm afraid, really afraid, our sole hope lies in the now-forming "60 acre Southwest Park Committee."

Unless we work some bureaucratic wonders or create such a tumult that we cannot be denied, those last remaining 60 acres will no doubt be divvied up among the bikers and hikers, the runners the gunners, any and everyone but the dog people who most need them.

Metrulis lives in the City of Ithaca.