by Shari Barton
The 2900 block of Upton Street has been “renamed.” It is now known as “Pupton Street” to the dog lovers who are a majority of the street’s homeowners.
There are 31 houses on the block and 21 dogs live in many of them (three more died within the past two years and are not included in the count, but will undoubtedly be replaced). Those 21 are joined daily by the Connecticut Avenue and Tilden Street dogs, whose owners walk them on Upton, and the occasional family of deer that also walk on the sidewalk in front of our houses. We do indeed live in a fuzzy paradise (well it would be a true paradise if those ugly autos didn’t speed down the street–or park on it!).
The dogs are diverse (big and small, young and old, rescued and bought). Residents ditto: Big and small; young and old (a smattering of seniors and seven children, ages three years and under, with one or two more on the way) and those in-between; and married, divorced, single, gay and straight.
We like it that way – and we bond as we take our many daily walks down “Pupton.”