Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, January 5, 1994                   TAG: 9401050074
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C-4   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Landmark News Service
DATELINE: NORFOLK                                LENGTH: Medium

JUDGE HAS MERCY ON BOOK-LOVING ROVER

Wofford didn't walk Tuesday. But the 4-year-old golden retriever did get a slap on the paw.

"How do you plead?" Judge William Oast asked Wofford's owner, David Viccellio.

"Well, your honor," said Viccellio, "the dog did get out, but he went to the library."

"He went where?" asked Oast.

On Nov. 17, a warm, sunny day, Wofford slipped through a broken slat in the backyard fence and beat it to the Larchmont Library, a block from his house.

"He wanted to get a book," Viccellio explained.

Wofford has never shown any interest in fetching sticks or balls, but he likes nothing better than to get his teeth around a good book and curl up in a corner and chew on the subject.

When visitors come to the house, the dog, named after Viccellio's college alma mater in South Carolina, grabs a book from the shelf and presents it to them.

Since accounts of "Wofford's Day at the Library" ran in the newspaper, he has become something of a celebrity.

The Viccellios have been interviewed by radio stations as far away as Washington state, and the saga has aired on the local National Public Radio affiliate.

Wofford has received books in the mail, and several dog lovers offered to pay his fines when he appeared in General District Court.

"He was trying to take a book out of the library?" asked Oast, who had apparently not heard of Wofford's celebrity status.

"No, your honor," said Viccellio. "He wasn't taking it, he was in the checkout line when they found him."

"Well, that's good to hear," said Oast. "In that case, I think we'll just suspend these charges."

Oast suspended charges of being a "dog at large" and not having a license, but he tagged Wofford's owners with $28 in court costs.

Viccellio said Wofford, who was at home, probably would be relieved to hear that the judge didn't throw the book at him.

"I showed him the summonses when we got them, and they kind of got his attention," he said. "He's been burying bones out in the yard the last few weeks. I guess he felt we might not feed him if it went badly."

Viccellio's wife, Kat, said they weren't going to read Wofford the riot act, but there'd be no new books for a while.

"Twenty-eight dollars," she said, leaving the courtroom. "Could have bought him a lot of good books."