Rent-A-Pet

If you feel that New York is an inappropriate place for your garden-variety Newfoundland or Irish Wolfhound, fear not — you can now rent pets, affording one the chance to simply return them before they slobber up the place:

Jared Wasserman’s parents aren’t wild about his current crush. One recent morning as this long-lashed 5-year-old sat tugging on his big toe in the pristine den of his parent’s duplex, he announced he had fallen in love. “I’d like to marry Rudy,” he said.

It is an interesting choice; Rudy is male and can’t talk. He is Jared’s hamster. Jared and Rudy, however, have not moved in together yet. This is because the parents Wasserman like having their home pet-free.

“I’ve never been an animal person,” said Jared’s mother, Marla Wasserman. “I could do without the flies.”

Rudy is part of a small population of pets in New York that can be leased or adopted part-time. He lives in a cage with Jared’s name on it on East 91st Street at the Art Farm in the City, an indoor petting zoo and educational center that is home to 15 kinds of small creatures like millipedes and cockatiels, all of which can be rented yearly for $100 (for a tarantula or a frog) to $300 (for a chinchilla or rabbit, which require more upkeep). In general they live at the Art Farm and make occasional visits to their part-time owners’ homes.

Before you stomp your foot and sigh, “What will they think of next?” know that renting pets helps fight against a particular sort of scenario:

Sean Casey, the owner and founder of Sean Casey Animal Rescue in Brooklyn, has adopted out everything from wallabies to alligators and currently has cats, parakeets, hairless rats and a dozen other types of animals ready for adoption or part-time foster care. He said corn snakes and rat snakes are the ones people ask for the most. Cats and dogs tend to be the animals that are returned the fastest because they require more work and training than people expect.

Mr. Casey said he tries hard to screen out anyone who might take animals for dishonorable reasons, but he cannot always be sure someone is not just taking a puppy for a day or two in order to pick up women in the park. “I’ve turned away people who say they want a snake for a few days so they can freak out their roommates,” he said. “Or one woman asked me for a bird temporarily because she felt her cat was bored and needed something to swat at.”

At certain perfect moments, the Times channels J.D. Salinger. This is one of those moments:

Occasionally, when [Art Farm co-founder] Ms. [Valentina] Van Hise feels especially comfortable with the part-time pet owners, she’ll let them take the animal home for a short stay. Jared and his sister, Alison, who live on the Upper East Side, were allowed to bring Rudy home, at no extra charge.

After struggling to get the cage into a cab and getting home, lots of pictures were taken of Jared, in pajamas, cuddling Rudy on the kitchen floor. Jared even asked his mom if he could have a farmerlike red-checkered shirt and a pair of overalls like the Art Farm caretakers wear. He brought the pictures to school for show and tell, and gave one to his teacher as a gift.

Then two days later Rudy returned to Ms. Van Hise.

“I just kept thinking how they’re part of the rodent family,” Mrs. Wasserman said. “When I brought him back, Valentina said, ‘You’re welcome to keep him longer,’ but I said ‘No, it’s time for him to come back here now.'”

Jumping and Licking Enthusiast Loose on the Major Deegan

If you were lucky enough to catch the news coverage last night, you would have been treated to harrowing live footage of a dog evading cops and drivers on the Major Deegan. We saw him get clipped by a car, but for a while there, it was hilarious. Newscasts took several minutes out of their schedule to follow the breaking news, which was better than O.J., in my opinion.

The Times picks up the story:

A runaway poodle named Snoopy found fame yesterday afternoon when he was spotted negotiating traffic on the Major Deegan Expressway near Yankee Stadium.

Helicopter news cameras beamed nail-biting images of Snoopy dodging cars and police officers approaching him. One officer braved a retaliatory nip, scooped him up and stuffed him into a squad car.

You might be wondering whose dog this was; the Times tracked him down:

Officials refused to turn the dog over to Ken Baez, a truck driver, who showed up to claim the 6-year-old mixed poodle. Mr. Baez said that his mother-in-law, Altagracia Santana, is in the Dominican Republic and that he and his wife, Elosia, had been caring for Snoopy when he escaped.

He had watched Snoopy’s adventures unfold on television. “We were looking all day and we went to take a rest,” Mr. Baez said. “That’s when we saw him on TV.”

Workers at the [American Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in Manhattan, where the dog was taken] said they were concerned that, his ordeal notwithstanding, the mixed-breed poodle appeared unkempt. and they wanted to make sure he was receiving proper care. Gail Buchwald, a vice president, said Snoopy was given a mild sedative.

. . .

The Baezes said they had been trying to find Snoopy since 2:30 p.m., when he bolted from their apartment at 150th Street and Macomb Avenue, where he had been staying while his owner was away.

Somehow, Snoopy made his way from there to the Major Deegan, where he was finally grabbed at 5:55 p.m.

Mr. Baez’s nephew, Jose, 15, said Snoopy, whom he described as an enthusiast of jumping and licking, didn’t know any tricks, at least until he developed his escape routine.

He added: “I was going crazy because the dog was on the highway. They were like, he was neglected, but he wasn’t. Everybody knows that dog.”