Sting the dog loves helping children with their reading skills. So when no one showed up to his library session earlier this month, his owner posted some lonesome looking photos of the canine to Facebook to encourage participation.
But when the internet got a load of the pup’s sad mug, thousands of people from across the country started clamoring to cheer him up.
If you also feel yourself getting worked up over the injustice, have no fear – Sting’s owner, John Muellner, has been quick to reassure media sources that Sting is by no means a sad dog… his face just looks like that.
The 10-year-old hound is a retired race dog who now works as a certified therapy dog in White Bear Lake, Minnesota. Once a week at the city library, Sting lets kids read to him for the Paws to Read program – an initiative that lets kids practice their reading skills by reading to complacent pups. He usually spends an hour at the library so at least three kids can get 20 minutes of reading time; but this week, no one showed up.
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“Unfortunately, nobody signed up to read to Sting at the White Bear Lake library tonight,” wrote Muellner. “If you know of a 4 to 8 yr old who would like to read to a dog, please contact the White Bear Lake library by phone or their website about the Paws to Read program.”
Much to the surprise of Muellner and the library, the phones started ringing off the hook.
“People are asking if we could hold the phone to Sting’s ear so they could read to him,” librarian Ann Wahlstrom told TODAY. “The whole staff of a Petco in California called to say they love Sting. It’s just amazing, the outpouring.”
Much to the delight of the librarians, Sting’s schedule is now booked solidly until April, as is the other resident reading dogs of Paws to Read.
“We love promoting the joy of reading; the joy of reading to dogs,” she added.
Click To Share The Pawesome Story With Your Friends (Photos by John Muellner)
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Lovely. My 20 week old puppy is going through her obedience training but after she becomes a Canine Good Citizen we are going to be looking at training for therapy for the express purpose of becoming a READ dog for our local library and schools.