Marley is in one heck of a predicament, and that is a bit of a shame.
The cops came for him in a flood of red and blue lights exactly a week ago, a half-dozen or so laying siege to the South Leyden Street home before collaring him and putting him behind bars.
He is beautiful, which is the only way to describe him. I have seen Marley only in videos, of him running and furiously jumping. A beauty of a guy, who deserved better.
Bridget Mahony wrote to me the other day, asking if I might put in a good word for him here, insisting that Marley has been railroaded, that no explanation has been given for his incarceration, that he truly is cherished and well-behaved.
I went to South Leyden Street to speak with her. She was not home. So I walked one house over where the man said to have ratted out Marley lives.
His name is Tony Moreno. He is 50 years old and lives there with his mother, Juanita, and his three kids, Gabe, 13, Matt, 10, and Heloise, 10.
Juanita Moreno walked from the kitchen after I was let in. She is 91 years old now, a 5-foot-nothing, 85-pound wisp of a woman. She gently took my hand and led me to her backyard. She wanted to tell me a story.
The yard is a huge, well-tended and neatly ordered expanse of lawn and flower gardens, all except for the length of chain-link fence on the north side. That is where Marley used to roam.
Marley is an 11-month-old German shepherd now in custody at the Denver Municipal Animal Shelter for having knocked down, nipped and otherwise roughed up Juanita Moreno two Saturdays ago.
It was the second time he had gotten to the tiny woman. He had gotten Tony on the shoulder a week prior. They had called animal control after each incident. Nothing was done until last Monday.
“After that, the neighbor seemed to find every way they could to get me into trouble,” Bridget Mahony wrote in her appeal to me. “I have been an excellent parent to my dog.”
She did not return phone messages.
Juanita Moreno walks me along the 4-foot-high chain- link fence, holding my hand, saying she never wanted any of this trouble.
The last attack occurred when she bent down to pick weeds in a corner of the yard. The dog had her by the hair. Tony fought it off, and rushed her to the emergency room.
The yard has been her sanctuary over the 40 years she has owned the house, she said. She loves to work in it, to make things beautiful, she said.
Yes, it is a shame, what has happened to Marley, she said. She wonders how such a beautiful dog could be so sadly untrained.
Bridget Mahony visits Marley daily at the shelter now. All of it just breaks her heart, she said.
Juanita and Tony Moreno say they will attend Marley’s court hearing Aug. 3. He pulls from his pocket his son’s cellphone, clicks a button and shows the videos he says he will bring.
In one, Marley is racing on the other side of the fence, trying to catch 10-year-old Heloise, who is screaming. In others, he leaps half over the short fence, scratching at the girl and her brother as they cower.
You stand there and just know that come Aug. 3, not one winner will be found on either side of the fence.
Bill Johnson writes Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Reach him at 303-954-2763 or wjohnson@denverpost.com.
