A SUMMER HOME FOR HOMELESS DOGS

A SUMMER HOME FOR HOMELESS DOGS

Bar Harbor Record
June 9, 1897

A Bar Harbor man thinks it would be a great idea to have all vagrant dogs transported for the summer months either to bathe themselves in the salt water at Schooner Head or breathe the pure air from the top of green Mountain.  My attention was recently called to the founding of a hospital for stray cats.  Why not a summer home for homeless dogs?  According to the gentleman's plan, which is certainly a benevolent one, there would be less dogs on the street to run promiscuously about and to annoy people and children, while the dogs  no doubt would greatly enjoy their vacation and escape many a kick from dog-hating pedestrians.  Bar Harbor seems to have a large surplus of dogs at present and society could spare them, perhaps, without suffering any permanent disability.  And then, too, what an opportunity here offered for some charitable and benevolent lover of that affectionate quadruped and faithful friend of man, the dog, to gain an enviable notoriety and possibly social advancement by establishing such a fresh air home for aged, indigent, convalescent and homeless dogs!  While that night prowler and disturber of the nocturnal peace, the cat, if being provided for in her city hospital, why not give the dogs a chance to recuperate in his midsummer kennel on Green Mountain?  People then might be spared the pains and inconvenience of taking off their hats to and turning aside for every canine they chance to  meet upon the sidewalks, for Bar Harbor dogs never turn to the right nor left to avoid meeting people but push straight ahead like a horse with brain fever, just as if the public walks were made for their special use.