Dear Benny,

Where do the animals at the Ryan Veterinary Hospital go to “mark their territory” and relieve themselves now that the dog park—which used to be at the corner of 39th and Spruce—has been paved over into a small parking lot?
— Curious About Canines

Dear Pooch Advocate,

We wondered what happened to that little park, too, and so we hounded the Vet School for an answer.

Here’s the poop: According to Gail Luciani, director of communications for the School of Veterinary Medicine, the small park where clients and staff used to walk dog patients was converted into a parking lot in December.

That was necessary in order to make up for spaces that will be lost when the hospital’s existing 8,000-square-foot parking lot is built over to make room for a new radiation therapy and imaging facility later this year.

The new Rosenthal Imaging and Treatment Center, by the way, will house magnetic resonance imaging equipment, a linear accelerator and room for a multi-slice computed tomography scanner. In conjunction with the hospital’s surgical and chemotherapy capabilities, the new facility will allow doctors to treat two to three times as many cases, in a more effective fashion, and with fewer negative side effects.

As for dogs in need of “relief,” a newly created green zone near the entrance of the Ryan Hospital and an open “square” behind the building should suit that purpose just fine.