Bad Dog Gone Good

To the Editor:

Two years ago I adopted my best friend’s yellow lab, actually I accepted the gift of my best friend’s yellow lab. At the time, two-year-old Bailey was getting into trouble in the Borough of Newtown by chasing joggers and cyclists down the street. He even had to serve time and his owner got cited. I brought Bailey to Caratunk, Maine, a small village of about 100 year-round residents. Here we all know each other well, we visit each other from time to time and the handful of kids in town drop by to say hello as well.

Everyone knows Bailey here, in fact, the postwoman gives Bailey dog biscuits. Bailey also knows most of the dogs in town and except for one nasty little bugger, they all get along and play together. Bailey gets to swim in the Kennebec River and run along the Appalachian Trail. So what has made this bad dog (forever lovable), gone good? The answer recently dawned on me.

Newtown has become impersonal, it has gone from the small town I grew up in to an over-populated suburb. Newtown has lost the friendly, know-your-neighbor charm that I found in the small village of Caratunk, Maine. The difference here that has turned Bailey from a bad dog (forever loveable) into a good dog, is that he knows everyone in town, even some of the summer people. The slogan “it takes a village” couldn’t be more applicable to this story as it is to our children.

Take the time to visit with your neighbors. Just maybe you and your children will feel more loved while enjoying a sense of belonging to a community. I know Newtown has become too populated to continue remaining a little village, but maybe, just maybe, it can go back to being a little warmer.

Signed,

A Newtown Native,

Nick Stagl-Steel

Caratunk, Maine                              August 1, 2001