People are suckers for dog stories.

So the photo of a pup named Chief on the front page of The Brownsville Herald - and sitting in front of a fire truck no less - is irresitble on various levels. A dog that is beloved by local firefighters would seem to be a wholesome story. It is, but the doggie has been thrown into the mix of local politics where the thirst for battle is such that no opportunity to stick it to the other guy can be left unattended. 

Is nothing sacred, not even a dog? Uh, no.

Here’s how it goes: The president of the Brownsville Firefighters Association apparently really dislikes his boss, the fire chief, so the labor prez and other like-minded firefighters find a stray dog, take him to their station, and name him “Chief,” a dig no doubt at the human chief. The people’s chief ain’t taking it, so he takes chief the canine  to the animal shelter in between fighting fires and talking to Rotary Clubs about it being fire prevention month.

So this poor perrito, which once led a carefree life filled with the daily search for its three squares a day, is now the subject of a City Commission agenda item. The doggie discussion  became essential after the firefighter association prez, who’s the uncle of one of the city commissioners, filed a report against the human Chief, alleging theft, (i.e. the transporting of said chief, the dog, to the animal shelter, see the exhibit marked 1A).

When Chief, the canine, was reached for comment on the tussle brewing around it, the dog offered a terse no bark. No wonder. Chief, the canine, is now a mere pawn in a bitter dogfight between the firefighters and Chief, the human.

Another human, the city’s mayor, cares more for canines than some of the humans he works with, just like the firefighters. Chisme’s over-and-under on how long it would take for the mayor to get involved in doggie-gate was 8.5 hours. Wrong. There’s the speed-of-sound thing, and that’s fast, but not fast enough to gauge just how fast Brownsville’s current mayor will throw himself into the latest local controversy. H1N1 flu, approaching hurricanes, dogs, it’s all good. There’s always a camera waiting to record how passionate he is about Brownsville, how hard he works, how lousy his critics are, so forth and so on. Throw a dog into the mix, and olvidate,  this thing is taking off.

The mayor can’t just throw himself into a controversy. He has to do something extra, give it that 110 percent extra jab to stick it to his lousy critics, those miserables. Hey, I know mayor, why don’t you suggest that the fire chief should be fired for being so mean to el chiefie? 

Saying he is “just a public servant,” trying to represent the city he loves 24/7, the mayor proposed to evaluate and seek the ouster of the fire chief. No can do, says the city manager, who reminds the mayor that it’s his job to supervise the  fire chief. And basically, basically, the city manager said, the firefighters need to respect the rank, (fire chief), over a dog and the firefighters association set up to protect it.

And just to get a little more fire  power, the fire chief gets a lawyer, (of course), and hey, it’s the immediate former mayor of Brownsville, who as luck would have it, likes the current mayor the way Dick Cheney admires Barack Obama. It’s a “political vendetta” the former mayor/lawyer guy says about attempts to oust the fire chief over the dog custody battle. Ooh boy, wonders Chief the canine. Can’t the humans just all get along and get me a beef biscuit?

So to recap: The president of the firefighters association, who likes dogs better than his fire chief, files a theft complaint against said chief after beloved dog is taken from Station 6 to animal shelter. A dog’s best friend in Brownsville, i.e. the mayor, a mere public servant, says he’ll take the canine over the fire chief, to which the city manager tells the mayor to buzz off, to which the former mayor/lawyer guy for the fire chief calls it all a “political vendetta.”

Wow, good thing new city Commissioner Melissa Zamora is on this thing. We need to get this thing straightened out. Should fire stations have mascots? Should Chief the canine be one such mascot? Will Chief the canine even be willing to stay after all of this noisy mess or run away to his former life to seek the quiet of open spaces  and turned-over trash cans?

Zamora says the commission doesn’t have “a dog in this fight.” True. But it does have a chief, just not sure if it’s human or canine.

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