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Lonely Library Dog Now Has Many Wanting To Read Him A Story

MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- A reading therapy dog from Minnesota now has a following from across the country.

And he has Facebook to thank for it. Sting spends many evenings at the local Library having kids read to him. But one night, no one showed up. So his owner posted a picture of the lonely-looking Sting, requesting more readers.

Unfortunately nobody signed up to read to Sting at the White Bear Lake library tonight. If you know of a 4 to 8yr old...

Posted by John Muellner on Wednesday, February 7, 2018

As WCCO's Molly Rosenblatt shows us, it worked.

Not many sounds are heard in the library, except books getting checked in and books getting checked out. Unless you're at the Ramsey County Library.

John Muellner and his best pal, Sting, are regulars here.

"Sting is a 10-year-old greyhound. He's a retired racer from Iowa," Muellner said.

Now John says that no matter where he takes Sting, he knows exactly where to go once he sees his blanket.

But on a recent visit, lonely String waited patiently. But no one came to read to him. So John posted about it Facebook, and it went viral.

"Played the angle of poor Sting. Was all by himself, and then a friend asked if she could repost it public and I said yeah, and after that it just went everywhere," Muellner said.

Sting is now famous.

"It just kept going and going. I mean we were getting replies from Australia, Manila, Argentina. I just couldn't believe it kept going like that," Muellner said.

Sting isn't the only therapy dog helping kids gain confidence with their reading. READ Dog Minnesota has volunteers in schools and libraries across the seven-county metro area.

Back here at the Ramsey County Library, John and Sting are fully booked.

"He hasn't let it go to his head yet," Muellner said.

That Facebook post of Sting now has 100,000 shares and more than 76,000 likes.

 

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