DATE: Friday, October 3, 1997               TAG: 9710010104

SECTION: CHESAPEAKE CLIPPER      PAGE: 02   EDITION: FINAL 

                                            LENGTH:   99 lines

TOWN TALK

Dr. Rod C. Hartwick, of Island Wharf Veterinary Clinic, moved to Chesapeake from Chicago to cut back on his practice and to enjoy semi-retirement.

The first few months after Hartwick, 65, relocated, he enjoyed watching the boats on the canal and made plans to write a book about his experiences and adventures as a jockey, football player, horse trainer and finally vet.

Four years later, semi-retirement is a joke around his office. The doctor has pioneered the use of laser surgery in declawing cats and now has 12-hour work days to see about 7,500 patients.

The book may be a ways off, but Hartwick offers several details of his rich and varied life.

In the 1940s, there were no buyers for a young foal that Hartwick and his father were trying to sell. There was only one option left for the young jockey and his horse-owner father to do. They decided to train her for the racetrack.

On her first race, the young runner was listed in the track program as a filly of obscure lineage. After that win - and several more - her status changed to one of modest lineage. Later, after more than $500,000 in earnings and being named the 1952 ``Horse of the Year,'' Sickles Image was called a horse of impeccable ancestry.

Then there's the story about Hartwick's first patient. Two weeks after graduation from veterinary school, he was called on to treat a circus lion. The new doctor knew a tumor had to be removed, and he knew the procedure, but he was not sure about how much anesthesia to give the really big cat. To his relief the procedure went well, but there was some concern when the patient did not wake up for many, many hours after the surgery.

Then there was the time in New Orleans when an exotic dancer, wearing her pet boa constrictor, came to his office. The snake had swallowed a diamond bracelet.

After bracelet-retrieval surgery, the boa successfully recovered and the dancer wore her jewelry home.

In his Chesapeake office, Hartwick has a duck head recovered from the bowels of an over-zealous Labrador retriever. Apparently in trying to live up to his good name, the myopic dog jumped into his owner's pool and grabbed a duck. Only it wasn't a mallard, it was a rubber-ducky. The dog recovered, but it was too late for the duck. And it yet another story for the book.

- Susan Smith Hizzoner, ``Snow King''

Politicians get called a lot of names. But how many elected officials get a crown and a cape to go with their title?

Chesapeake Mayor William E. Ward will soon be exchanging his gavel for a scepter - and perhaps matching tiara and banner.

Ward has been named the first ever ``Snow King'' for the Chesapeake General Hospital Health Care Foundation's Chesapeake Holiday Wonderland and gala, which will benefit the hospital's Cancer Treatment Center.

To kick off the fund-raiser, the hospital will hold a gala opener on Nov. 19. The actual Chesapeake Holiday Wonderland, which will be open to the public, will take place Nov. 20-22 at the Chesapeake Golf Club and will include decorated trees, wreaths, ornaments, auctions and many other activities and features.

According to Mary Barber with the Health Care Foundation, Ward will be crowned the first Snow King and will reign, or should we say snow, over the entire event.

Ward accepted - or rather consented to - the title given him by Gladys A. Wilfore and Philip Johnson at a recent City Council meeting. He'll be ``crowned'' at the actual gala.

``I humbly - and reluctantly - accept the title of Snow King,'' Ward said. ``I'll have to wear the crown and probably some kind of cape.''

- Liz Szabo Philadelphia story

They may not know it yet, but City Council member W. Joe Newman and Vice Mayor John W. Butt have been nominated as Chesapeake's delegates to the National League of Cities.

The league is scheduled to hold its annual business meeting in Philadelphia in December.

It seems Butt and Newman were the only two council members absent at a recent meeting. Somehow - and of course this can't be a coincidence - their names were submitted in their absence.

Who ever said that City Council members weren't thoughtful?

- Liz Szabo Examining no-man's-land

No one can say they aren't thorough.

While touring the new Chesapeake Conference Center, members of the Industrial Development Authority insisted on inspecting all of the facility. When Economic Development Director Donald Goldberg informed the IDA of the conference center's progressive ``potty parity'' policy - whereby the ladies' restroom has twice as many stalls as the mens' room - authority members just had to see it to believe it.

Authority members asked the only woman present - a certain journalist who shall remain nameless - to scope out the restroom for them and make sure it was empty before they took their tour. Their female companion dutifully stood guard while Goldberg and the six authority members got to go where no man has gone before.

And the results?

``Very impressive,'' said one authority member approvingly.

Watch out, boys. Rumor has it that the women's division of the Chamber of Commerce may plan the next chapter of their cookbook in the men's room.

- Liz Szabo

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