The Real Dogs of White Bear Lake
If you like dogs, and you can’t seem to fight the gravitational pull of negative news stories your brain is piling up for you in a compartment it calls Just When You Thought the World Couldn’t Get Any Worse, let these columns slam the door on that stuff for a while. Celebrate the capacity of ordinary dogs to make everyday human lives more extraordinary, and vice versa. And enjoy a laugh or two.
Here’s how the columns happen: On my walks around the city of White Bear Lake, Minnesota, I meet random dogs whose owners are happy to let me say hello to their pets. That’s a win right there. Should they agree to let me feature them in my column, all the better. My heartfelt thanks go to the dog owners below who so graciously allowed me to use their dogs’ stories in the ways I do.
All columns appear first in the White Bear Press/PressPubs (links below) before being posted on this site. If you’re in the local readership area and don’t have a subscription, I encourage you to think about getting one in support of local journalism and this award-winning community publication. If you’re not local, column reprints are available here as well.
Meet Louie. A dog with a shrouded past who’s made an extraordinary adaptation. Let’s first imagine him sitting in a chair across from Henry Louis Gates, Jr., host of the documentary TV series “Finding Your Roots.” The cameras are rolling. Louie is all ears, admirably holding back a huge urge to chew on his microphone. He’s still in that Chewing is Life! phase of his youth. As for his roots…
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Meet Non-conformist Finn, a Black Lab mix, with maybe a dash of Pointer. Only Finn could tell you how he first came into the hands of a rescue organization in Alabama. Had he gotten irretrievably lost? Was he a hunting dog, dumped for failing to be what he was supposed to be? One thing Finn was “supposed to be” was a Yellow Lab.
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Meet Diggs, Jam and Truman. They would like you to know that they are not roadies for a death metal touring band. No sir. And though you might think they’re out for an early Halloween stroll, that is not the case here either. So what’s with those gleaming studs and spikes sticking out from those outfits they’re wearing?
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Six years ago, entering retirement, Roger Schwinghammer faced a baffling decision, the outcome of which was bound to alter his life. And it was this: Now that he had the time to give, he’d decided to become a first time Golden Retriever dad. He visited a promising littler of ten. He committed to taking one. But, full stop…
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Meet Archie, a very Great Dane indeed. Often seen taking in the shore breezes with his human Christopher Hughes along Lake Avenue, Archie is an elder statesman known to many for his extremely gentle but dignified bearing. He accepts the curiosity, pats and strokes of friends and strangers with patient aplomb, as though to rebuff them would be a a failure of station and good character. That he enjoys the attention does not mean he intends to grovel for it…
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* This story was combined with Echo & Athena’s story in the WBP.
Meet Echo and Athena, a pair of Pomskies. What are Pomskies? Imagine that you accidentally shrunk two of your best, furriest sled dogs in the dryer, and then made the best of your ruined chances for winning the Iditarod by declaring them a new designer dog breed.
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Say hi to Pippi, a 7-year-old English Bulldog. Actually, there’s nothing she’d like better. She has enough fans on ground in White Bear Lake to be a social media influencer. But she has neither fairness of face nor the blind ambition for pushing product. Pippi is simply what you would call a piece-a-work…
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Meet Elsie and French. Life has unexpectedly thrown them together, and each dog has left something important behind. For one of them, that wasn’t so hard. For the other, it was. They aren’t what you’d call BFF’s. But both have read and agreed to the user terms set forth by their humans…
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John and Kim Ghilardi had grieved the loss of their 15-year-old English Pointer. But the time came to adopt a new puppy and the criteria were as follows: John, who terms himself a casual hunter, had an eye out for a dog with tracking and retrieving potential. A son hoped for an indoor buddy. Kim established what the dog could not be…
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In a place we’ll call “Elsewhere” for lack of better intel, in a local holding facility, a young, healthy and affectionate female dog was slated to be euthanized. It’s not known why. But what comes to mind is a kill shelter with an oversupply of homeless and neglected dogs. Apparently, at the last moment…
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Coming soon…