"
The main building is a small but handsome brick affair, facing on Lake
Street. This is the home of the superintendent, and contains, besides,
the offices of the establishment. Over the office is a tablet with this
inscription, taken from a letter of Miss Gifford's about the time the
home was opened:--
"If only the waifs, the strays, the sick, the abused, would be sure to
get entrance to the home, and anybody could feel at liberty to bring in
a starved or ill-treated animal and have it cared for without pay, my
object would be obtained. March 27, 1884."
The superintendent is a lover of animals as well as a good business
manager, and his work is in line with the sentence just quoted. Any one
wanting a cat or a dog, and who can promise it a good home, may apply
there. But Mr. Perkins does not take the word of a stranger at random.
He investigates their circumstances and character, and never gives away
an animal unless he can be reasonably sure of its going to a good home.
For instance, he once received an application from one man for six cats.
The wholesale element in the order made him slightly suspicious, and he
immediately drove to Boston, where he found that his would-be customer
owned a big granary overrun with mice. He sent the six cats, and two
weeks later went to see how they were getting on, when he found them
living happily in a big grain-loft, fat and contented as the most
devoted Sultan of Egypt could have asked.
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