Monday, 07 February 2005 | Dog hunt

We stopped on the corner of Delancey and Orchard to watch a random collection of pedestrians try to capture a dog on the loose. "Stop that dog!" a man with a booming voice yelled up the block. Another man stood dumbly by as the animal pranced around his feet, the command not yet registering as one meant for him.

The dog was white and had curly ringlet fur, and its ears, which stood at attention on top of its head, looked exactly like the ears of a rabbit, but the fake kind, the kind that humans wear at costume parties. The creature was wired on adrenaline and ran in erratic shapes on the street, dodging hands that reached down to get it, and hopping wildly like a bucking bull. It looked more like a wind-up toy than a dog.

We were running late, but it was impossible not to watch the situation play out. In fact, everyone in the area seemed to be focused on the chase; the people who weren't running after the dog were bonded to the cement beneath their feet, staring. I was a little worried that the animal might foolishly dart into the middle of traffic on Delancey, which was streaming from the Williamsburg Bridge. I couldn't have been the only one. When a stout middle-aged woman finally scooped up the spastic dog in her arms, the street sighed collectively and, show over, began moving again.