Animals: Dog Hunt

In Pawtucket, R. I. one day last month a prize-winning Boston terrier named Sox, worth about $200, vanished from an automobile owned by Walter E. O’Hara, operator of prosperous Narragansett Racing Park. Because his wife Cle dearly loved the dog, Operator O’Hara boomed over his park loudspeakers that afternoon an offer of $250 for Sox’s return, sent 100 ushers, watchmen, clerks, grooms out to scour the neighborhood. When they returned emptyhanded, Operator O’Hara upped his reward to $1,000 alive. He bought space in Providence, Boston and other New England newspapers to announce his loss & offer. He hired time on Providence radio stations. He had poles, trees, fences plastered with posters bearing Sox’s picture and “$1,000 REWARD.” Soon the entire countryside crawled with children, policemen and other hopefuls poking in bushes, peering down alleys, knocking at doors.

A fortnight passed, the hunt died down. One day last week one Walter Kelley, 58, went walking in the woods near Seekonk, Mass., found a little dog lying beside his path. It was hardly more than a bag of bones, too weak to moan, pads worn to the quick. Kind Mr. Kelley had forgotten about the great dog hunt, but he carried the miserable animal to a nearbyfarmhouse. The farmer promptly led him to a tree, pointed to a poster. It was Sox. Hastily summoned, a veterinarian gave the dog an injection of glucose and a 50-50 chance to live, rushed it to the O’Haras’ home in Pawtucket. There last week Sox, wasted from 20 to 6½ lb., was under constant care of two veterinarians and Mrs. O’Hara. Finder Kelley, more concerned with his creditors than with Sox’s health, kept mum about what he would do with his $1,000 windfall.