Wasn't it great fun watching the Jefferson County SPCA recently try to win a million dollars in an online "makeover" contest sponsored by zootoo.com?

So much hoopla and excitement!

And when the SPCA found out it had come in third place and received a check for $10,000, didn't it make you proud to be from Jefferson County?

My heart was racing!

OK, now that we have that out of our system, it's time for the community to acknowledge a few dilemmas facing the SPCA.

Any agency that needs to win the lottery to solve its financial problems has problems that go far beyond finances. And under the direction of Executive Director Linda Miles, the agency has a few problems.

Don't take my word for it. Ask the people who resigned from the board last year, including the incoming board president, because they didn't like the direction the SPCA was headed.

Take a look at the organization's federal 990s during the past decade and see if YOU can figure out how salaries were divvied up from year to year between Miles and her husband. (There's no missing money; the problem is a lack of money and the lack of a plan to get money).

Ask any other community leaders if they think it is a good idea for an executive director of an agency to also be a member of the agency's board of directors, as Miles is.

("I get to vote on my own salary and proposals? What a deal!")

And ask all the organizations that are trying to raise millions of dollars for their own pet projects — Samaritan, JCC, Hospice, etc. — if they think Miles has much of a chance to raise between $500,000 and $1 million to build a replacement shelter on Water Street.

What you don't have to ask is this: If the SPCA didn't exist, we'd invent it tomorrow. And the person hired to run it would likely be Linda Miles, who wakes up every day caring more about animals than anybody else around here.

So what's the point?

The point is that in the increasingly complicated world of programs and funding, it is increasingly difficult for one person to do all things well.

You've seen it yourself. Number crunchers can look at spreadsheets all day and find them fascinating. But offer them a healthy dose of human tragedy and they yawn.

Meanwhile, bleeding hearts start tearing up immediately — oh, the humanity! — but they can't figure out how to operate a wallet.

And that, my friends, is how the road to hell was paved with good intentions.

The SPCA board has its plate full trying to figure out the future, but if it will resolve a couple of issues — removing Miles from the board for starters — it will actually find a community that is more than willing to form a partnership to help the SPCA build a facility.

For instance, in 1993 the city closed its dog pound next to the Thompson Park zoo and turned everything — including euthanizing Fido — over to the county. From out of that action a myth developed: dog pounds and zoos don't mix. In fact, a lot of people, including me, were under the impression that the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA) would not accredit the Thompson Park zoo as long as a dog pound was nearby.

But the AZA folks in Maryland say that's just not true, citing a number of accredited zoos in the United States that have animal adoption agencies nearby.

Thompson Park Zoo Director John Scott Foster says having the SPCA next door would be, well, cool. He can envision families going through the zoo, watching programs on the importance and care of animals, and then walking over to the SPCA to adopt a pet.

Foster can even envision his professional staff providing advice on animal care to SPCA volunteers. And then he mentions product placement: Everybody who goes to Thompson Park and the zoo will see the signs for the SPCA as well.

The big problem, of course, is that Thompson Park is owned by the city of Watertown. Except maybe it's not such a problem. Ask City Manager Mary Corriveau about putting the SPCA at Thompson Park and she immediately says, hmmm, maybe if the SPCA were there we could then build that dog park the council has been kicking around for a year.

The SPCA board may choose to hunker down on Water Street and try to nickel-and-dime its way to success. But it really needs some deep pockets, and those aren't the people generally found waving pom-poms at zootoo pep rallies. If they were, the SPCA wouldn't need a makeover.

But deep pockets are out there. And if they had the assurance that some form of an SPCA-city-zoo alliance was behind the effort, they would pay attention.

And so would the military after the right person from the Fort Drum Regional Liaison Organization — another partner! — calls headquarters and says, "General, you know it, we know it and the American people know it: every time you deploy 4,000 soldiers the SPCA gets 400 dogs and cats dumped on it. I know you're expanding vet care on post. But how about taking a chunk of change from your morale, welfare and recreation budget and chipping in on the additional facilities SPCA needs to make this problem — which your folks helped create — go away."

Look, I've got no dog in this fight, so to speak. Whatever the SPCA decides, we'll report on it. But all agencies need to reflect on the fine line that exists between loving a cause and loving it to death.

We don't need no stinkin' zootoo.com. We need a visionary SPCA board with a vibrant mission and the ability to find common ground with other leaders in our community.