By SANDY BARNOSKY
The Pet Lady
The 11th annual Top Dog Contest resulted in hundreds of entries from fourth grade students in the county who proclaimed the merits of their dogs to be chosen as Top Dog. Their virtues included companionship and camaraderie, being a play pal and offering comfort and unconditional love.
The contest, designed by Medina [...]

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By SANDY BARNOSKY
The Pet Lady
When most people think of skunks they cringe, thinking of the pungent smell they can release. But Deborah Cipriani shares her home with more than she’s willing to put a number on.
Cipriani’s an authority on the care and health of skunks and founder and president of Skunk Haven, an international [...]

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By SANDY BARNOSKY
The Pet Lady
Feline immunodeficiency virus (FIV) is a cat-only disease that cannot be spread to any other species including humans. It was first discovered in domestic cats in the mid 1980s and, according to Cornell Feline Health Center, about 1.5 to 3 percent of domestic cats in the United States are suspected of [...]

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By SANDY BARNOSKY
The Pet Lady
Whistles, warbles and chirps come from behind a closed door with a clear “wolf” whistle sounding as the door opened. Inside a spacious cage is not a parrot or parakeet one might expect to see, but instead are two starlings belonging to Sarah Neal.
Their relationship began three years ago at [...]

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By SANDY BARNOSKY
The Pet Lady
Ellie, a Chesapeake Bay retriever, didn’t need encouragement from the chorus of dogs barking at the shoreline as she raced down the dock and leaped into the air to retrieve a toy suspended on a pole high above the water. She hit the water with a splash and swam back to [...]

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By SANDY BARNOSKY
The Pet Lady
Lady, a 12-year-old mare, was underweight and suffering from a painful deformed hoof when Brenda Lewis first saw her standing in a paddock, knee-deep in mud. Scars covered her back where she had been beaten. Lewis’s heart went out to her, and she struggled to come up with enough money to [...]

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By SANDY BARNOSKY
The Pet Lady
It was a cold day near the end of January when Spencer resident Alice Crawford saw a potbellied pig in her yard on Lovers Lane. She tried to lure it to safety with food, but although the pig accepted her tidbits, she wasn’t able to catch it. Sightings of the elusive [...]

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By SANDY BARNOSKY
The Pet Lady
Rosewood Farm is home to four miniature donkeys owned by Sheri and Ron Knorr. They started with just two of them about 12 years ago, but fell in love with the gentle, affectionate equines and began a small breeding operation.
“When we sold one, we were always sure it got a [...]

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By JUDY A. TOTTS
Religion Editor
MEDINA — Like children scrubbed and wearing their Sunday best, the baskets line the steps of the altar at St. Francis Xavier Catholic Church.
Each basket brims with foods reserved for Easter tables: ham or leg of lamb, freshly-baked breads, pastries and cookies. A bottle of table wine peeks out from [...]

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By SANDY BARNOSKY
Special to The Gazette
Bob and Susan Spisak have three cars. His, hers and an older model with a license plate that reads 4-Goldens, used when one or all of their four golden retrievers travel with them — and their dogs go just about everywhere, including vacations.
“They’re well behaved, and we’ve found many places [...]

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