If you need a quick doggie fix in downtown Ann Arbor, you’re in luck. There are plenty of pooches, purebreds, and hounds working side by side with their owners who will be glad to oblige–as long as treats and petting are part of the picture.

Jane Russell, Rosalind Russell, and Lillian Russell may conjure yesteryear’s stars of the silver screen, but those who visit Peaceable Kingdom on Main St. will recognize them as the Jack Russell terriers of owner Carol Lopez.

“Jane is the number one dog,” Lopez says. “She likes to be up here the most.” Jane is fourteen, while Roz is ten, and Lily–who Lopez says is kind of a bonehead–is three. “I was thinking about how Jane is getting older and [about] getting another,” Lopez says, “but our manager, Kelley, said, ‘One more dog, and I quit.’

“They don’t like other dogs inside, so other than service dogs, we don’t let them come in,” she says, just as Roz and Lily stand at the front door and begin barking. They keep it up until Kelley sees a plastic bag that’s attached itself to the door handle, bobbing up and down as the wind blows. After she removes it, there’s peace once more at Peaceable Kingdom.

Over at Abracadabra on Liberty, Gracie, a twelve-year-old Havanese, and Lucy, a five-year-old bearded collie, peer at customers from behind a baby gate. “We don’t leave them out front,” says co-owner Katherine Lesse. “We don’t want anyone to feel uncomfortable,” adds her husband, Steven. However, if customers ask, the gate is opened, and a love fest commences as the dogs bound out to nuzzle knees and snag pets and treats. Sometimes Cleo, employee Mariah Burton’s boxer, joins them.

As with all downtown dogs, their rock stars of treat delivery are the UPS and FedEx guys. A few trusted customers take Gracie for walks. Lucy doesn’t much care for Liberty St.’s traffic and stays behind.

Katherine says that, a few years ago during the Art Fair, Gracie found love at first sight when she met Frisco, the Havanese of Sheila Dietz. “The two hit it off. They went to the groomer together and had play dates.” Dietz and Frisco have since moved to Chicago, but the dogs still get together whenever Dietz visits Ann Arbor or the Lesses go to Chicago.

Lucy, who resembles a small sheepdog, is the sixth collie in the store’s forty-year history. Steven says that he feels the dogs give Abracadabra a friendly family vibe and promises, “We’ll have dogs forever in the store.”

The first dog to sleep in the display window of Vogel’s Lock & Safe on W. Washington St. was Willie, Grandma Vogel’s dog, back in the ’70s, says Denise Vogel. She doesn’t remember his breed, but recalls Willie as a “barker … a scrappy little tiny dog.”

Denise and husband Robert’s svelte two-year-old golden retriever, Lincoln, comes to work with them but is not fond of the window space. She leaves the pile of blankets surrounded by a plethora of keys to Mazie Blue, the rescue collie who has been coming to work with employee Jeff Marshall since October. “Collies aren’t as popular as they used to be, so Mazie is unique to kids who see her and ask to come in and pet her,” says Denise.

Both dogs snap to attention when the bell on the door jingles, heralding a customer’s arrival. They head to the half-gate by the register where a jar of dog biscuits sits invitingly. Tails wag eagerly and eyes look pleadingly, but even when a customer offers a biscuit, the dogs sit patiently until they have the owners’ go-ahead to gently accept their treats.

Vogel believes the dogs are good for business. “I think a lot of people come in to see the dogs and think, ‘While I’m here, why not get a key?'”

At Dogma Catmantoo on S. Fourth near Kerrytown, Pam Behjatnia’s field retriever Bernie, pointer Garbo, and beagle-coonhound Carrie are like kids in a candy store–albeit ones with sticky paws. “Garbo steals at least three toys a day,” says Behjatnia, who took ownership of the store in July. “Carrie was going after the rawhides in the front window so much I had to move them. And Bernie works at it, sneaking the Triple Treats.”

She says that Bernie, a cancer survivor, has the biggest fan base and is the dog most often in residence. “He gets less overstimulated than the girls, so he comes more frequently, but sometimes I bring all three,” she says.

A sign on the statue out front announces who’s in residence each day. “People just come in to pet dogs, some who may not be able to have them where they live,” Behjatnia says. “It’s something to see guys in suits sitting on the floor with my dogs.”

Around the corner at Heavenly Metal, the dog is Lucy, a black-and-white Papillon. “I wanted a small dog–not a fancy dog, but one I could take to work, and was smart enough to know what I needed her to do,” says owner Vicki Honeyman. And what’s Lucy’s job? “Her job is to protect me,” smiles Honeyman.

And Lucy has been doing that for fourteen years, sometimes going a little overboard. Honeyman admits that Lucy isn’t comfortable around kids and has “had an attitude since she was a puppy.” Those who try to pet her on her window ledge perch or bed in the back may receive a snarl or a snap. Honeyman and her staff give folks approaching ample warning. A sign over Lucy’s bed reinforces the message.

But Lucy has a softer side for her favorites, sitting in the laps of those getting haircuts from Honeyman or deigning to receive a treat or pet. Her love for her boyfriend, a rat terrier named Sarge, knows no bounds. “Jerry visits us with Sarge,” Honeyman explains. “Jerry’s in a wheelchair, so with the weather, we haven’t seen them as much. But when we do, she jumps all around Sarge.”

Sarge is a dog about downtown. He lives with Jerry Foster in Courthouse Square, and, when the sidewalks are free of snow, they range far and wide. Lucy and Vicki are just two of their canine and human pals. “We walk every day about three or four times,” says Foster. “We go to all the gift shops and visit Verizon. They got a water dish and treats. The bank always gives him treats. There’s a lot of places downtown to get treats.

“We go where he wants to go,” he says of Sarge. “He always takes a different way, and he always gets us back here.”

On the west side, stop by any Saturday at Mallek’s service station and meet the beagles Vegas, Indie, and Bruno. “There’s a lot of people who come in on Saturdays just to see ’em,” says Alan Richardson, a Mallek’s employee. “Lucy Ann Lance used to mention on the radio that it was doggy day at Mallek’s.”

Richardson started bringing seven-year-old Vegas three years ago, followed by his other female, Indie. Two years ago, Vegas had puppies, and Richardson brought them, too. He kept Bruno, a beagle/black lab/pit bull mix, but the other puppies were all adopted by customers and neighbors. (He adds that his dogs have since been “fixed.”)

Richardson says that a very few customers–“none of our regulars”–feel uneasy about the dogs, who remain leashed at all times. But they’re outnumbered by those who wait for Saturday to gas up so they can see their furry friends.

“There’s a customer who comes in here all the time,” says Richardson. “She brings them treats on Saturdays. They know her by her car. When the car pulls in, they get all excited.”