"I'm an equal opportunity fur lover," owner Dilys Burke said at the Somerville News contributors meeting on Nov. 7.

For years, Burke volunteered with rescue animals and dogs in shelters. Last February, she opened her shop in Union Square.

"It was always a dream of mine to work with animals and have a business like I now have, so I decided to take the plunge," Burke said.

Before becoming a small business owner, Burke worked as a medical writer with the Genzyme Corporation in Cambridge. In her spare time, she worked at the Union Square Veterinary Clinic as a vet tech assistant.

"I saw an equal number of cat and dog lovers that really took good care of their animals, brought them to the vet regularly and seemed very devoted to them," Burke said.

Dogma (and Catma, Too)'s Union Square location, near the Nunziato and Perry dog parks, makes the shop a great neighborhood business, Burke said. But the traffic bogged by construction has thwarted customers outside the neighborhood from reaching it.

"I've been having trouble expanding it out due to the construction," Burke said.. "Somerville Ave. is still pretty torn up."

Burke said the combination of services and ambiance separate Dogma (and Catma, Too) from other pet stores in town.

"It's a one stop shopping place," Burke said. The shop offers doggy day care, do-it-yourself bathing, professional grooming and Zen dog training led by Gordon Fontaine.

The store's retail section offers the basics pet necessities, such as toys, leashes and collars, but also a selection of holistic foods, opposed to unsavory commercial foods. Burke said she tries to know her products, so she can better advise customers.

"I really make it my business to know," Burke said. "I've called these manufacturers to make sure they're living up to their promise."

The store's focus is not only pets, Burke said, but the owners as well.

"I don't just love pets," Burke said. "I also appreciate the owners that love their pets."

Burke owns two cats and two dogs, one of which is a greyhound. Burke said she supported Question 3, banning dog racing in Massachusetts, which received more than 60 percent "yes" votes in Somerville, according to unofficial election results.

"There are still too many greyhounds dying at the hands of this industry," Burke said. "When you adopt them, you realize what they've been through. Too many aren't adopted."

Burke recommended adopting a pet because a large amount of animals need homes and owning a pet can attribute to health benefits.

"Having a dog or cat in your life can lead to lower blood pressure and stress relief," Burke said. "Petting an animal, petting a dog or a cat, lowers the heart rate."

Although Dogma (and Catma, Too) isn't based on a certain religion, no one said the customers wouldn't worship their pets.

"The people who use my services are going to be dogmatic about dogs and catmatic about cats," Burke said.

When it comes to what makes writing work for Tobin, drawing the reader in is paramount, he said.

According to Tobin, the chairman of Emerson College's writing department, "John Gardner said that a good piece of fiction draws the reader into a continuous fictional dream, a completely believable alternate reality. A poem that 'works' accomplishes the same, though perhaps in a somewhat more multivalent way, since poems by the simple fact of being written in lines establish a vertical dimension to the writing. That means a poem needs to satisfy musically and formally, in a way that is not as urgently required of prose."

On Nov. 22, Tobin will read his poetry at The Somerville News Writers' Festival at 371 Summer Street in Davis Square.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, New York, Tobin's mother worked as a bank clerk, and his father on the docks in New York.

Never having been encouraged to write by his parents, the teenager started writing poetry in a notebook, with topics ranging from history to mythology to love poems — "like every adolescent," says Tobin. "I liked playing with the sounds of language."

"They [Tobin's parents] were not particularly inclined to poetry. So, there wasn't a particularly educational foothold in the house," Tobin said with a laugh. "They didn't have any background in the area that I grew inclined to pursue myself."

However, "[My parents] didn't discourage me either. They pretty much went with what I wanted to do," Tobin said.

For Tobin, the writing process fluctuates. "I try to draft a poem as quickly as possible, with as great intensity as I can. Then, I just keep going back and going back. Others, go through many drafts to get where they're going.

"I will come back to a poem after years and revise it again. I've had poems that went through a minimal number of drafts and I was satisfied with them. Usually, things have to go through quite a number of drafts, and who knows how many hours of me mulling."

In case Tobin feels stuck at any given time, he simply directs his attention to another poem-in-progress to tinker with.

Tobin prefers to write in a standard-size, bound notebook in his study at home or his office at Emerson. When the opportunity arises, he enjoys writing in mid-morning, and continuing for a large chunk of the day.

"I've written just about anywhere. I have also jotted ideas or lines down, on the T, coming into work and going back from work," he said. "If I have to write on a napkin, or a piece of tissue, I'll do that, too," he said.

And, he said, he'll be doing it for a while. "I would like to be like Yeats, in the sense that Yeats kept writing, pretty much until the day he died," Tobin said

"I want to try to get into a union after I go to college, hopefully at Wentworth (Institute of Technology). I want to have a fallback plan," Standeford said, pride evident in his eyes.

"The teachers let you be creative, and you can make anything you want to," he said of the program, standing behind a fountain complete with streams of water slipping delicately over detailed metal leaves.

The department creates custom-to-order work, and its display table exhibited everything from holiday-themed candleholders to ornate wall hangings.

Besides showcasing the opportunities available to incoming eighth-graders, the fair boasted finger-painting and kid's activities, as well as free food prepared by the vocational program's culinary students.

"The whole event was student-driven," said Philip Bassett, Vocational Director of the Somerville public school system. "The fair gives students the opportunity to show off what they've done, and the opportunity to do this gets us out to the community to say, 'This is who we are.'"

Bassett, who has been the director of the program for eight years, was in full character for the event, dressed in a bright yellow button up and hardhat as he referred to himself as "Bob the Builder."

The program at Somerville High, which consists of fifteen vocational programs, claims some impressive statistics. While 72 percent of students in the program went on to college last year, 100 percent passed the MCAS exam.

Senior Neli Arruda has been involved in the Cosmetology program for the past two years, and would eventually like to get her aesthetician's license and work in a spa.

"The program is really hands-on, and you learn so much," Arruda said, standing next to a long table displaying acrylic nail designs and plastic doll heads sporting various hair and make-up styles. "It's also much cheaper than a (tuition-based) vocational school."