Summary: The laughter heard around Kansas City these days is coming from a wide variety of media folks (including other writers at the Star) who cannot stop chuckling that KSHB-TV41 weather wonk Gary Lezak's dog Breezy bit Kansas City Star gossip columnist Hearne Christopher, Jr. The joke going around is Lezak's dog should get a tetanus shot rather than Hearne (although Hearne had to be checked out at a hospital). On a more serious note, the folks at the NBC station (and his neighbors in Leawood's Lions Gate development) should be thankful the out-of-control dog bit Christopher and not some child. It could have been a PR--and legal---disaster. 06-27-2007
Posted on Tue, Jun. 26, 2007
A bite from one breezy animal to another
So I�m standing in the post office at 151st Street in south Overland Park, minding my own business (honestly) � And I see this buff bald dude wearing a 2005 Coldplay tour T-shirt. Yup, it�s KSHB weather wonk Gary Lezak. Naturally I have some questions for the G Man, who suggests I meet him outside because he has to rescue Stormy and Breezy from the car. So far, so good, right? Right. So outside to an open field I go, where Lezak is chatting up some weather groupie while the doggies have their way with the wide-open spaces. Until, that is, Breezy gets a load of me and growls her low-slung way forward and takes a nice chomp out of my right leg. Uh, ouch! That was weird � never been nipped like that by anybody famous. �That was horrible!� Lezak says. �He�s going to write about you in the paper! No! Bad girl! She�s in training. She�s got some issues, and she�s in training for this issue. No, no! You finally bit somebody, and it�s Hearne.� Columnist insert: For those of you waiting for me to get my comeuppance, this bite�s for you. Hey, but why me? Why not someone like Lezak archrival Katie Horner? �That would have been good,� Lezak jokes. By now Lezak�s wheels are turning. �This is, like, seven years ago when I got bit by that dog on the air,� he says. �Stormy would never do that, but Breezy�s got her issues. That�s why I need to call the Dog Whisperer.� Television�s Dog Whisperer. Apparently Breezy flunked out of a Northland doggie diva�s disobedience class, Lezak says. �You might need a tetanus shot, but she�s fine,� Lezak says as we note that Shepherd-mix Breezy�s bite penetrated my jeans, sock and skin. �Thanks for ruining my vacation,� Lezak says to one of us � me or Breezy. I can�t tell which. �What I need to do is be a responsible pet owner and not allow this to happen ever.� That brings us to Lezak�s post-bite resolution. Though Breezy has been to a dozen schools this year, where the kiddies learn about weather and coddle celebrity canines, �I don�t think I�ll take her now,� Lezak says. �That was the litmus test. You did everything right; she wasn�t looking at you at all. She treated you as an intruder. She�s been the sweetest, most wonderful dog, but she�s a dog. And she has some aggression issues.�
Feedback: "You know, dogs have a sense about certain types of folks. I'd say Breezy's senses are perfect."
