Dog park for Wellesley's North 40? Hey, Ellen, how about it?

Cooper the Goldendoodle before Wellesley firefighters rescued him.
Image from Wellesley Police Department video. Watch it here.

Just thought I'd weigh in —all 87.7 lbs. of me — before the going gets tough on exactly what is going in, or on, the North 40 property. And what a cure for winter weight that would be—a fenced place to gallop around and meet up with some friends.

Here's what made me think of it: not just the sight of poor Cooper, who didn't know what he was getting into when he ventured onto the icy Charles River at Elm Bank this week, and those brave firefighters who jumped into the water to save him, but looking over at a pack of dogs racing around Morses Pond this afternoon.

They really should not have been there. Safely frozen? Maybe, maybe not. Sections of the western shore certainly are mushy, and there's one part that never freezes.

Maybe Ellen DeGeneres, who generously offered another group of Wellesley firefighters a Caribbean cruise for their heroic rescue of a dog just before Christmas last year—also at Elm Bank—,will step up and give the town of Wellesley something it obviously needs—and which won't challenge state ethics laws: a dog park. The North 40 might be just the place for it.