Mongrels to Pedigrees, Dog Lovers Seek Canine Leash Mates

CANINE CRUSH: Doting dog lover seeks same to unleash dating game.

Lonely hearts with pooches can place just such a personal ad in a newsletter just for them.

“Quiet animal lover seeks down-to-earth pet lover who knows who’s the boss--’The Dog,’ ” writes a 42-year-old New Jersey woman with two hounds at home. The Single Doglovers Assn. newsletter is run by Susie Arndorfer, a pet lover’s pet lover.

“I really believe in this,” said Arndorfer, although she admits her own personal ad hasn’t attracted a man willing to put up with her three borzois, an Afghan, a Pembroke Welsh corgi, two mongrels, two German shepherds, three cats, 11 geese and some goats.

The newsletter, published here in Slippery Rock, is an unsophisticated, desktop-publishing job. Membership costs $20 for six months, $30 for a full year. Personals number about 150. All mention dogs by breed.

The farthest-flung subscriber is a woman (mixed breed) in Odessa, Ukraine. A GWM, or gay white male (Wheaton terrier), is a new subscriber.

Some ask for pen pals. Others put their hearts on the line.

The newsletter paid off for Anne Marie Buzas and Patrick Kershaw, who got together after his April, 1992, ad and are now married.

“It wouldn’t matter if he looked like Mr. Millionaire or Mr. Schlub On The Street. I wanted somebody to understand that I had to go to 42 dog shows that year,” the new Mrs. Kershaw said.

Kershaw (three Saint Bernards) of Danbury, Conn., received many replies. After all, there are seven women for every male subscriber. But the letters from his future bride (German shepherd) from Columbia, Md., were a cut above.

She sent dog greeting cards. They exchanged photos of themselves with their dogs. Telephone calls dealt with their favorite topic.

“The main thing we talked about, mostly, was our dogs--our love of dogs, what we were doing with our dogs,” Anne Marie Kershaw said.

Like “The Brady Bunch,” they knew it was much more than a hunch. Now they all live on a ranch in Virginia, where the Kershaws breed Saint Bernards.