Like a Pearl

During the Great Plague of London, in 1655, a 22-year old named Isaac was sequestered. He used his isolation to invent “infinitesimal calculus,” the study of continual change.  A remarkable achievement, hinting at great things to come from Sir Isaac Newton. 

During the Covid lock down, our time of isolation, the Wentworths of Acton, Maine were sequestered and similarly productive, in an entirely different way. They used their time to construct six residential-style dog cabins, a welcome center with offices, a conference center and retail gift shop plus an Ice Cream Parlor and 18-hole Mini-Golf course.  

The family has owned the land for generations, as far back as the American Revolution – their forebears served beside George Washington – and they wanted to honor the memory of their Grandmother “Grammy” Rose Kessler Wentworth.  The buildings were completed over 18-months and in 2022 the Grammy Rose Dog Rescue & Sanctuary began operations.  The Ice Cream and Mini-Golf generate revenues making it a self-supporting rescue center.  https://grammyrose.org/

They entered adoption agreements with “kill shelters” around the country, primarily in the Deep South.  There are so many stray dogs down there that the Sheriffs routinely pick them up from the side of roads and, rather than euthanize them, ship the dogs north to New England for adoption.  Think of it as a modern day abolitionist above-ground railway. 

We drove to Acton last Friday ostensibly “to look” at a puppy.  But no one drives one hour one-way just “to look” so it was no surprise that we returned home with a 9-week old female puppy, recently arrived from Webster Parish in northwest Louisiana. The Mother was a lab-mix while the Father is unknown. She appears to have some Rhodesian Ridgeback in her. 

Her adopted name was “Jayne Mansfield” honoring the 1950s “bomb shell” movie star and Playboy Playmate, whose IQ reportedly was 149, at the genius level. Hopefully our puppy was named for that trait. 

We mused over names. My daughter offered Maisie, and I chimed in Mae, both of which, it turns out are derived from a Scottish Gaelic word, derived from the Ancient Greek “margarites” meaning pearl.  Luminous indeed, and given her high energy, we are calling her “Crazy Maisie Mae.” She is a handful, 24/7.

Our art farm is home now to two adults, two children, two rescue dogs from the South and two rescue cats, one from Puerto Rico and the other from Oklahoma.  Meanwhile, back in Acton, Grammy Rose keeps rescuing dogs, 35 having been adopted during the month of October.