Faces Of Nantucket: Beth Morris

Years on the island: Over 65

Favorite things about the island: Family, being out on a dirt road or beach any time of the year, the serenity of the offseason, the island’s local community and how it comes together.

Since 2018, Beth Morris and her dog, Pepper, have been instrumental in reuniting lost dogs with their owners. The pair searches tirelessly whenever a dog happens to escape or run away on the island, looking for as long as it takes to find each missing pet and reunite them with their families.

A Nantucket local, Morris has been living on the island for over six decades. After growing up on Nantucket, she attended Southeastern Massachusetts University, now UMass Dartmouth, coming back to the island as soon as she graduated to teach art – her dream job since she was a freshman in highschool. From that point on, she spent about 35 years as an art teacher in the Nantucket Public Schools system.

“I knew I wanted to come back here,” Morris explains. “Which meant there was really only about one job in the entire world that I wanted and I was lucky enough to get that.”

After she retired from teaching, Morris began volunteering at NISHA, where she read every book she could about dog behavior and dog psychology. This changed the way she speaks with Pepper: asking instead of telling, and focusing on his intelligence and communication between the pair.

This allows Pepper and Morris to work together well when searching for other dogs – Pepper’s senses allow him to see, hear, and smell things that Morris can’t. While originally their efforts were trial and error, Morris trusts Pepper’s search process while also prioritizing his own safety.

Morris got Pepper seven years ago, a rescue who she describes as a “classic Mississippi mutt.” After sadly losing her previous dog on Mother’s Day in 2017, Morris thought she needed a year before she got another dog. But, three weeks later, Pepper was hers.

“I didn’t know what to do with myself without a dog,” Morris says.

The next year, Morris and Pepper found a missing dog together for the first time. A dog that Morris had previously fostered on the island, Hannah, had gone missing on Cape Cod. Professional searches weren’t having any luck, but Morris believed she and Pepper could locate Hannah, as she was a dog Pepper was already familiar with.

“I just had this overwhelming feeling that we could… so we went and tried that,” Morris explained.

Ultimately, the pair was successful, and Morris wanted to learn more about Pepper’s natural abilities – especially when it came to finding other dogs. She realized that Pepper was inherently intelligent and good at locating and interacting with dogs, so she knew that finding Hannah wasn’t a fluke.

“[Pepper] is a full partner,” Morris says, “If it wasn’t for him, I probably wouldn’t be doing it.”

Upon joining NISHA (Nantucket Island Safe Harbor For Animals), Morris had also joined a group that went searching for lost dogs on the island, which at the time only had five or six people. Now, with Morris spearheading the group, it has grown to over 100 people who have gone on over 70 searches in the past seven years.

“I never expected it to become something as big as it has, and for the people who have depended on it to depend on it like they have,” Morris adds. “For some people, it has been the difference between finding their dog and not finding their dog.”

For Morris, it’s important to realize that when it comes to lost dogs, they usually go missing by some very strange circumstances that are not at all the humans’ fault – so she treats each missing pet with the same care and consideration – never giving up on the search.

Most recently, Morris and Pepper were crucial in locating a little 9-year-old Boston terrier with vision problems named "Benzo", searching until he was reunited with his family – demonstrating the pair’s dedication and care for each missing pet and family they help.

Morris said she is immensely grateful for the people who continue to show up to help during searches, a number that has continued to grow over the years and includes locals and visitors alike – and of course, Pepper.

“What I do is not me, it’s a team,” Morris emphasizes. “It’s a huge team effort and it wouldn’t work without that.”

All photos below by Charity Grace Mofsen