Lady, the golden retriever who graced Maryland state highway maps and gubernatorial Christmas cards, died last month. She was 13 and lived in the governor's mansion.
One of many pets in the O'Malley menagerie, Lady came to the family 10 years ago when Gov. Martin O'Malley was mayor of Baltimore. A friend of a friend had some health problems and had to give her up. The O'Malleys, who then had three young children (the fourth came later), were looking for a dog that was housebroken.
"When we first got her, you could play fetch with her," first lady Katie O'Malley recalled Wednesday. "I would run 10 miles with her at Loch Raven. As she got older, she was slowing down."
Lady had been on medication for the past three years for a bad hip. In her last weeks, she needed to take the Government House elevator instead of the stairs to the governor's bedroom, where she always slept on the floor, on the governor's side of the bed. Katie O'Malley made arrangements for Lady to see the vet, hoping a new medication was all she needed.
With the first lady, a District Court judge, away in Russia for a judicial consortium, the governor himself took the dog to the vet. Katie O'Malley got a text message in St. Petersburg from her husband, asking her to call home. Lady had cancer, and the vet recommended putting her down.
They discussed waiting until the first lady's return five days later but decided against that. They had Lady put down the next day, May 14.
"It would have been unfair to Lady," Katie O'Malley said. "Martin had to go all by himself and hold her in his arms while she went to sleep. It was very, very sad for the kids."
Two years ago, the O'Malleys had to find a new home for another dog, Scout, a terrier that had bit big-time Democratic donor John Coale in the behind and then — the last straw — nipped then-5-year-old Jack in the face.
But the governor's mansion is still home to Rex, an English cocker spaniel; Winston, a "Yorkiepoo" (a cross between a Yorkshire terrier and toy poodle); and cats Zoe and Butch.
Change of venue
State Del. Jon Cardin and Megan Homer were married last weekend. And you're thinking: After a police-involved marriage proposal, the wedding must have been something of a letdown.
But there was some nuptial drama. Not the whirring police helicopter, faux police raid, wild misuse of public-safety-resources kind of drama that marked Cardin's marriage proposal last summer. We all know that sort of romance can't last forever.
This time, it was last-minute, change-of-wedding-venue drama.
The details are sketchy, since I couldn't reach the bride and groom, presumably because they're off on their honeymoon. But I found out this much from Ray Vogel, ballroom coordinator at the Grand Masonic Lodge of Maryland, where the wedding took place: The bride and groom booked the place only three weeks beforehand.
The wedding had been planned for somewhere else, and for some reason, the couple decided they needed to make a change. The original location was "a place that was nice and is not so nice now," was all Vogel would say.
Scrambling to find a location that could accommodate 280 wedding guests on short notice must have been stressful. But Vogel said bride- and groom-to-be were "very calm" about the whole thing.
After surviving that proposal, it was a piece of cake.
Those fast-moving guys
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake attended the Indianapolis 500 last weekend to get a look at the sport that will come to downtown Baltimore in August 2011.
"It was a little strange for me," she said at a news conference Wednesday. "I was excited — so excited — to be able to see the potential for Indy racing in Baltimore. But for some reason, it didn't hit me that this is Indianapolis and the Mayflower truck that stole our team until I was getting off the airplane.
"And I was thinking to myself, 'Oh my God, I'm a traitor.' But it was an economic development excursion, and I got myself together. I was even pleasant when I met Indy's mayor."
Rawlings-Blake came away from the trip excited about more than an economic development opportunity.
"I've never seen the women swoon over any men like I saw [for] the racecar drivers," she said, departing from her prepared remarks. "Women were embarrassing themselves all over the place because — I don't know — I found out over the weekend, there's something attractive about a man that's going almost 200 miles an hour — 230? … All right, I'm gonna go back to my script."
Signs of the times
Who says Governor O'Malley has failed to deliver?
State Dems, that's who.
In an e-mail to the party faithful, Matthew Stegman, the Maryland Democratic Party's Baltimore County coordinator, writes:
"Sick of seeing those oversize Ehrlich signs all across the county? So are we. Over the next two weeks, we'll need your help to call committed Democrats and ask them to show their support by putting up a yard sign and to deliver those signs. The O'Malley campaign has set a goal of delivering 1000 signs that weekend and we are only half way to our goal."