The Rowayton Screen

ROWAYTON, Conn., Aug. 27 —Jordan Giles, the assistant captain of Rowayton D, confirmed this week that he has moved the family dog into his mother's house on Highland Avenue, an arrangement he said followed a careful, unprompted reading of the club's bylaws that left him convinced the definition of residency does not exclude a fourteen-year-old golden retriever.

The dog, named Otis, made the move in a single rented panel van on Tuesday afternoon, a trip of 0.4 miles that Mr. Giles said took eleven minutes door to door, including a stop for the dog's orthopedic bed, two bags of prescription kibble and a water bowl that now bears the Highland Avenue address in adhesive vinyl lettering.

"I didn't wake up wanting to think about Article Four," Mr. Giles said, standing in his mother's driveway. "But I read it, and I read it again, and there is nothing in there that says a domicile has to be a person. If they're going to come after my residency, I want the paperwork to already be settled."

The clause in question, Article IV, Section 2 of the club bylaws, defines a member's residency in 212 words and has not been amended since 1994, according to a copy provided by the club's records committee. It does not use the word "dog" at all, a fact three members interviewed for this article each cited independently as proof of exactly the opposite conclusion the others had drawn.

Fred Schweizer, who captains Rowayton D and signed off on Mr. Giles's residency paperwork Wednesday, said he had not read past the first page before approving it. "Boys of swaddling and stained paddle cloth, the bylaw is basically fine by me," Mr. Schweizer wrote in an email to the D roster announcing the change, adding that he could not locate his own printed copy of Article IV to check it further.

Jeff Ortolano, who is on no side this season, said he forwarded Mr. Giles's claim to the RPTA board Thursday as an anonymous tip, reasoning that an ambiguous bylaw deserved a formal ruling rather than a captain's signature. "Somebody has to ask the question properly," Mr. Ortolano said. "I'm not saying he's wrong. I'm saying the club should know."

Mr. Giles, who did not know the tip had been filed until a reporter told him, said he was unsurprised. "I knew someone would do this," he said. "I just thought it would take longer."

The RPTA board did not respond to three requests for comment. Skip Dunphy, the board's president, said through an assistant that he was aware of "a residency matter" but declined to say whether it involved an animal.

Otis, reached for comment at the foot of the driveway, declined to be interviewed but appeared, by every account, to be at home.