MANHATTAN — As a graduate student, Katherine Long doesn't have deep pockets for giving to charity.
So, instead of reaching for her checkbook, she came up with a more creative idea to support one of her favorite causes.
In the spirit of homegrown lemonade stands, Long hand-wrote a sign advertising "Rent-a-dog" in Central Park on a Saturday afternoon earlier this month. For $5, park-goers could take her "gentle" and "lovable" Collie/flat-coated retriever mix, Ocho, for a 20-minute walk.
"It's spreading the word about rescue groups," she said. "People see my dog and say, 'I'm hanging out with a rescue dog, and the dog is pretty awesome.'"
Long sent the proceeds to Ruff Start Rescue, the Westchester-based group that brought Ocho to New York from a "high kill" shelter in South Carolina in February.
She's planning her next Rent-a-Dog outing in Central Park just inside the West 85th pedestrian entrance to Central Park on July 1, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
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