pets page: dog crazy

Published in The Post-Star (B12)

11/20/05

It started simply enough.

Dawn Segedi got her first dog, a sheltie named Wizard, as an antidote to obsessive compulsive disorder.

"I was a total clean freak. I cleaned the house with toothbrushes and toothpicks, and wouldn’t let my kids get a speck of dirt on them," she said. "Getting Wizard helped me learn to live with having dog hair on the floor."

When 39-year-old Segedi developed social anxiety disorder last year, she again turned to dogs for help. She bought a Yorkshire terrier named Zeke as a "therapy dog," and was soon hooked.

"I just fell in love with their docile personalities, and the way they bond with you," she said. "They’re exceptionally loving."

Now, she owns 11 dogs: eight Yorkies and two Pomeranians, plus Wizard. Not to mention the cat and the gerbils.

A look at Segedi’s yearly expenses offers an extreme example of the cost of becoming a dog owner.

"My vet bills this year total $6,150 so far, not including shots," she said. "Dental care is another $105 each per year."

Tack on the cost of food, collars, leashes, dog beds, and clothes — yes, clothes, from poodle skirts to winter parkas — and her pets get even more expensive. When the four Yorkies she got from Brazil recently developed respiratory infections, she spent several thousand dollars on inhalers and oxygen treatment.

Segedi may recoup some of her initial investment, however. She’s starting her own breeding business, Adirondack Mountain Tiny Dreams, although she doesn’t plan to part with any of her current pets.

"Some days, my family loves it," said Segedi, who is married with two kids. "Some days, they hate it.

"The best thing is when telemarketers call. I get all the dogs barking, and they just hang up."

These days, Segedi won’t even let visitors peek inside her home, since it’s being remodeled to make more room for the dogs. "It looks like a cyclone went through there!" she said with a laugh.

On a recent morning, her pants were covered in muddy paw prints after playing with the dogs in the backyard, but she didn’t seem to care. She cuddled one of her newest pets, Laci, a Yorkie whose owner died in Hurricane Katrina.

"I have no regrets," she said. "I mean, look at this face."

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