Meet Cathy Sicard and Pablo

Cathy Sicard, her dog Pablo, and her son’s dog, Nugget, enjoy spending a few days a week taking in the fresh air and talking with others at the dog park.

Sicard, a nurse by education, but Lassiter High School student mom and homemaker at present, has lived in the Northeast Cobb area for the past 26 years.

A New Yorker by birth, Sicard and her husband moved to Georgia due to a job transfer by Mr. Sicard’s employer. Upon the advice of their real estate agent, they eventually decided to make Northeast Cobb their home.

“Our real estate agent’s husband was a coach at , and she said this would be a great location to raise a family. I remember when we first moved here, Sandy Plains Road was just a  two-lane street. I also remember having to drive all the way to Sandy Plains just to get a bagel,” quipped Sicard.

Gone are the days of Northeast Cobb being a remote outpost. The community has grown in leaps and bounds since the early days when Sicard first moved to the area.

“It really feels like a community now,” said Sicard. “Before, you really didn’t get to know many neighbors because everyone was so spread out. The addition of public areas like the Sweat Mountain dog park have really helped too.”

Even though the area has grown so much, it still has that small town community attitude, and a spacious outdoors feel to it, said Sicard.

“Several years ago, when our family starting growing, we bought some land on Sweat Mountain and decided to build our next home there. We really enjoy watching the wildlife. We’ve see a lot of deer on the mountain, and one day we must have had at least 50 wild turkeys in the yard,” she said.

There is one thing Sicard doesn’t care for in Northeast Cobb: coyotes. Recently, Sicard lost one of her beloved pets to a coyote that wandered onto their property.

“We’re really having a problem with coyotes these days," said Sicard. "You hear them howling at night. One of my neighbors even had one jump over her backyard fence and kill her small dog. Small dogs and cats are easy prey for coyotes. Now I don’t let the dogs out until after sunrise and I bring them in before sunset. That’s when the coyotes really seem to be on the prowl.”

Sicard says she wouldn’t want to live anywhere else but in Northeast Cobb. “I’ve made some life-long friendships here, and it reminds a lot of where I grew up on Long Island. Northeast Cobb is just a great place to live.”

Be sure to visit the leash-free dog park to spend time outdoors in a friendly environment. Who knows, you could be our next Sweat Mountain Dog Park “citizen of the week."