Sarah with dog in doorway

As an adult, Jewett had several dogs, including Crabby, Jock, Browny, and Sandy. An Irish Setter named Roger seems to have been a particular favorite of Jewett and Fields, spending winters in Boston and summers at the seashore, taking walks with Annie Fields and chasing sandpipers.

“Once the Reverend J. G. Wood, who understands dog life as well as anybody in the world, asked us reproachfully while Roger lay before the library fire on a very soft rug, if he ever had to do anything he didn’t like. And I felt for a long time afterward that I might be neglecting the dear dog’s moral education.”
-Letter to Gertrude Van R. Wickham, August 29, 1886 (Letters of Sarah Orne Jewett, edited by Richard Cary, 1967, Waterville, Maine, Colby College Press. Colby Miller Special Collections, Colby College)