ROSES to Amanda Stipe and her dog Weaver, who have teamed up to craft a remarkable rags-to-riches story right here in town.

Weaver, a foxhound, was a stray when he was picked up in the spring of 2001 by Stipe, who was then the Town of Carrboro's animal control officer. She took a shine to the charismatic hound, and she and her husband decided to foster him. They almost didn't get the chance; after she had taken him to the shelter, Weaver was literally moments from a date with euthanasia when Stipe's husband arrived to grant him a reprieve.

Weaver has made the most of his second chance. Stipe noticed that he had the intelligence, speed, balance and enthusiasm for agility training, and she began entering him in competitions. He won. Again and again and again, he won.

Now Weaver -- former stray and shelter dog -- is the No. 1-ranked male American foxhound in the nation, and the No. 1 male in the U.S. Dog Agility Association's ratings.

In dog-agility circles, he's a rock star -- he was on the cover of Dog Sport magazine last month, and he'll have a spread in Dog Fancy magazine next month. He's been invited to compete in the American Kennel Club Agility Invitational in Los Angeles, where only the top five dogs in each breed are invited.

Go, dog, go.


ROSES to the local firefighters and North Carolina Forest Service personnel who mobilized quickly and professionally to control a series of brush fires earlier this month.

Sept. 11 was a day of record-breaking heat, high winds, low humidity and no significant rain for months. That's a recipe for wildfires, and Orange County Fire Marshal Mike Tapp and Forest Ranger Jacob Pressley issued a fire alert that morning. The warning proved prescient when a 911 call came in at 1:25 p.m. Two more fires sprang up within 30 minutes.

Very quickly, almost every fire department in Orange County, along with those from neighboring counties and the state Forest Service, moved into action. Fourteen fire departments in Orange and Alamance counties brought in more than 35 emergency vehicles with more than 90 firefighters to battle the fires. The Forest Service provided a helicopter for water drops, a single-engine spotter plane and two tractor-plows to cut firebreaks. Additional resources from Chatham and Orange County departments were moved in to cover the districts of the departments actively fighting fires.

The fires made the news, but not in a big way, because no lives or property were lost. That was due to the energy, skill and cooperation of a lot of firefighters battling the fires not only with trucks and choppers but on foot in extreme heat using hand rakes, water backpacks, leaf-blowers and chainsaws. Tough work, expertly done.


ROSES to the Orange County and Chapel Hill-Carrboro school boards, whose members are putting their heads together to try to come up with a better budget process.

The annual dance that is the school funding process has become increasingly tortuous. All parties play their appointed roles: the commissioners announce their determination to keep taxes as low as possible, and the schools warn of dire consequences if they don't get their funding requests fully met.

This year was especially painful. School staff had real fears of losing their jobs, students braced themselves for the loss of academic and athletic programs, and parents turned out in droves to demand that the commissioners meet the funding requests in full.

The process breeds suspicion, mistrust and heated emotions. There has to be a better way.

The school boards are trying to find one. Chapel Hill-Carrboro Superintendent Neil Pedersen recommended a system whereby the schools would give the commissioners more information earlier. That surely would be a good start.