Winthrop Masters Reunited With Dog

Huck, a three-year-old English springer spaniel, made a triumphant return to his Winthrop House home yesterday afternoon after a day he will not soon forget.

At the very least, Huck’s adventures will stick in the minds of his owners, Winthrop House Masters Paul D. Hanson and Cynthia Rosenberger.

According to Hanson, the Lamont Professor of Divinity, the dog “lost his head” in the midst of the May Day celebration in the MAC quad yesterday morning.

“Huck is a gregarious dog,” Hanson said. “I can just imagine how he reacted to all those school children with their bells. He would really get into something like that.”

Huck was then seen by Winthrop House Superintendent David D. Simms “bee-lining it in the direction of the Master’s House.”

But the spaniel apparently became distracted and didn’t make it home.

Anxiety ran high in Winthrop House, where Huck is much loved. The House banded together in a collaborative effort to find the dog, who was last spotted in the vicinity of Holyoke Center.

“If we have 400 sets of Winthrop eyes looking today on campus, we are sure to find him!” wrote house tutor Brian L. Martin in an e-mail over the Winthrop house list, Throptalk.

Hanson himself spent much of the day searching Harvard’s campus and the surrounding area.

Aware of Huck’s adventurous tendencies, Hanson contacted the Cambridge Police Department and Boston Animal Rescue League, thinking the dog might have roamed outside of Harvard’s confines.

These suspicions proved fruitful—Huck was found around 3 p.m. by police in neighboring Belmont.

The police took the dog to an MBTA commuter station in Belmont Center, where he and Hanson were reunited.

Although the dog has never disappeared before, Hanson said the fact that he took off is not entirely surprising. Huck, though “infinitely friendly,” has always been “frisky,” Hanson said.

So frisky, in fact, that Hanson and Rosenberger started calling the dog “Huck” instead of his full name, “Hucksley.” They felt such a spirited animal deserved a less proper title, and thought Huck Finn would be a fitting namesake.

The Winthrop house community is thrilled to have Huck back. So are Hanson and Rosenberger, who would be well-advised to accompany Huck at next year’s May Day festivities.