So the next time Michael "MJ" Smith, saw the volunteers from the Coalition to Unchain Dogs in his Southside neighborhood, the 14-year-old went up and asked:

"Can you build a fence for my dog?"

On Saturday, more than three dozen volunteers did. Like a pack, they descended on East Umstead Street and in a couple of hours built a chain-link fence for a 2-year-old pit bull named King.

King marked the 1,000th dog the coalition has built a fence for since founder Amanda Arrington met two chained dogs while doing volunteer work and asked her husband, Casey, "Why don't you build them a fence?"

And the couple was there Saturday, hammering posts and bending wire to take King off the chain he's been tied to since he got too big to stay inside with MJ and his grandparents, James and Lottie Smith.

The coalition has started chapters in other counties and states. It's lobbied for local limits on how long dogs can be tied up outdoors.

Over time, Arrington says, she's come to learn it's not just about helping dogs.

As she stood on the front walk with the Smiths, cars stopped in the narrow street and asked how it was going. "A beautiful fence for King," the mailman said and smiled as he passed by. "Happy Day, Happy Day."

Each new fence is a chance to start a new relationship, Arrington said. And because the coalition takes dogs for shots and spay or neuter operations and returns twice a year to make sure the dogs have shade for summer and hay for winter, the volunteers become part of the community.

"We work in the same neighborhoods week after week," Arrington said. One fence leads to another as a relative tells a relative or friend tells a friend. Or a boy asks if his dog can be next.

"I just felt like he'd be more comfortable with a fence, that he'd have more freedom, " said MJ, a ninth grader at Jordan High School.

When his grandson told him about the fence, James Smith, 87, asked how much it would cost. The retired nursing assistant worked for 35 years at the Durham Veterans Affairs Medical Center and is partially blind.

When he learned it was free, "I couldn't believe it," Smith said. If he'd had to pay, "it would cost plenty," he said. "It's a beautiful fence, and it's good wire."

The Smiths had six children, five of them still living. MJ is one of 13 grandchildren, and they have one great grandchild.

"Funny thing is everybody asks, 'How long you been married?'" Smith said. When he tells them it will be 63 years this July, they say "to the same lady?"

Lottie, 82, smiled at her husband's joke.

"I say if I had to do it all over again I'd pick the same one," he added.

Arrington says she wants to broaden the mindset she sometimes sees in the animal welfare community. Animal-minded folks need to remember it's just as important to get to know the people they're helping as the animals, she says.

"I would never have met [the Smiths] if it weren't for King. What you learn when you start talking to people is really important."