May 18, 2007: Dog chapel

[Undertoad]

xoB suggests this Dog Chapel designed and built by artist Stephen Huneck, at Dog Mountain, Vermont.

One day, not long after I was back home with my wife and three dogs, a wild idea just popped into my mind (a frequent thing, but after several weeks had gone by, this one was still there). I have found that in the case of a wild idea popping into my mind, then building a sort of nest of supporting ideas, I should give it some serious thought. The more I thought about it, the more I realized it was something I simply had to do.

I wanted to build a chapel, one that celebrated the spiritual bond we have with our dogs, and that would be open to dogs and people. People of any faith or belief system.

And not only did he build it in St. Johnsbury, Vermont, on a beautiful mountainside, he made sure there were places for the dogs to romp, because that's what dogs do best.

I built that chapel on Dog Mountain, our mountain-top farm in St. Johnsbury. I have styled it in the manner of a small village church built in Vermont around 1820. It is important to me that the chapel looks like it belongs with its setting of rolling mountains and pasture. The white steeple points up to the heavens, and on the top is a Lab with wings that turns in the wind and proclaims this place has a special affinity with dogs.

Visit Mr. Huneck's Dog Chapel website