As we all remember, Saturday, Jan. 23 brought a pretty fierce storm to the Island that steadily intensified as the day went on. That Saturday morning we also woke up to a very sick dog. The on-call vet, Kirsten Sauter, correctly diagnosed a life threatening blockage in his intestine that required immediate surgery in the Bourne Specialty Clinic (thanks to Dr. Sauter). All the ferries so far that morning had been cancelled, but the 1:15 was scheduled to go. Dr. Sauter kept texting the Steamship Authority every 10 minutes to check. We packed up Chester and headed to the ferry. There were less than a dozen cars waiting to get off. But the 1:15 did run, the only ferry to make it off Island that day. We made it to the clinic in the storm, they operated that night, and Chester is already almost back to his old self. But if we hadn’t gotten off Island the outcome would probably have been very different. The Steamship Authority didn’t have to run that boat in the blizzard with only a few cars. But they did. We can’t thank them enough for going the extra mile and their dedication to the Island under really difficult conditions. They are truly part of what makes Martha’s Vineyard such a special place to live.

David Behnke, Paul Doherty (and Chester)
Vineyard Haven