When you live in the Bay Area, finding enclosed dog parks is as easy as meeting blonde girls who say “hella” and dirty vagrants on Haight Street selling bunk acid from their left shoe. The suburbs are literally rife with pre-fab, astro-turfed dog “havens” where anal owners strictly patrol and enforce poop protocol and God forbid you bring your small-breed dog to the “big” dog side of the fence. As much as I hate these places, Pippin (my shih-tzu) loves them and since he is such a reckless, “will-run-into-traffic-regardless-of-how-much-his-owner-yells-at-him” kind of dog (read untrained), having that enclosed, safe environment is a balm to my frazzled nerves when letting him off the leash.
After my first few months in New Orleans, Pippin was yearning for another doggie safe haven and I had no idea where to take him. Searching online, I discovered that a lot of owners used Cabrini Playground in the French Quarter for this exact purpose. Well, we went and we both loved it! There was lots of grass and trees, places for humans to sit and laid-back owners. I found out later that technically, that park isn’t supposed to be used for dogs, but as far as I could tell, no one else was using it…
Anyhow, to make a long story short (too late!), when I was looking for my house of the week, I found this incredible Creole cottage that just happens to be right across the street from Cabrini. This early 1800’s home is complete with the original, two-story slave quarters in back, a gorgeous courtyard, original Cypress-wood floors, lots of exposed brick, French doors, transom windows and high ceilings. There are six bedrooms, four bathrooms and 3800 square feet of living space. I really, really, really love this house, but at $1,150,000 — it’s just a tad out of my price range.
2 comments
How could one live in New Orleans and not be a music lover? 😉 Thanks for the heads up!
Welcome to the neighborhood! 🙂
The use of Cabrini has been contentious over the years – the "non-dog" people stage a "takeover" periodically and have a picnic day or whatever to show their disapproval, but it's pretty much become a dog park. I'm not a pet owner, but I have no problem with it. Aside from some (way too-) early dogfights on some mornings (I live directly across the street from the park), it's largely a peaceful place.
A law enforcement agent (not a cop) tells me that the park has a very different use late at night, but that's another story..:)
One thing – it seems that not only dogs are under attack in the dear FQ. Please be sure to put a very firm notice for any of your Quarter listings that new residents to the Quarter MUST BE MUSIC LOVERS. We've got a music-hating doctor (why are they always doctors?) that has decided to sue our local music establishments for noise and we'd rather that he move to Slidell where everything is nice and peaceful.
See you at the dog park! 🙂