Catching a breath on one of the circular benches outside the Ruth Stricker Dayton Campus Center, Tom Hengelfelt’s Penelope is a popular face among students and the greater Mac community. She is one of the many dogs that stroll through Macalester’s campus every day, a choice deliberately made by pet owners throughout the Macalester- Groveland neighborhood.
Penelope spends time on campus fairly regularly. Macalester is just one of the stops Hengelfelt takes on his walks with her. She comes to campus for a very important task: training.
“I’d like to make her into a therapy dog,” Hengelfelt said. “She’s still relatively young, so she hasn’t been assessed for that yet. [But I’m] finding that it’s good practice for her when strangers come up to teach her to be calm, not reactive. It’s just a really good social environment for her.”
Only two years old, Penelope is a Great Pyrenees and Bernese mountain dog mix. Both dog breeds tend to prefer humans over other dogs, with Great Pyrenees usually being livestock guarding dogs. They focus their attention only on one thing, leading her to be overly reactive at times.
“Her biggest struggle is once she finds somebody that she really likes, she gets so excited about seeing them,” Hengelfelt said. “She gets kind of whiny, … she just loves humans so much.”
Penelope’s popularity has even brought her to internet fame, sporting her very own special Instagram account @penelopeatmac that is full of pictures of her both on and off campus. Students who are interested in saying hi will likely find her enjoying the sun or on walks in the morning. She is especially fond of students who give her treats.
Andrew Koven has two dogs who also make an appearance from time to time on campus, due to Koven’s living in close proximity. Bosco is a six year old shepherd mix and a rescue dog. Alongside Bosco is Betty, a shy maltipoo who turns one soon. She, like Bosco, is a rescue dog. Like their fellow Mac-Groveland dogs, Koven considers them generally pretty friendly.
“[Betty]’s still learning, because she’s still a puppy,” Koven said. “She’s a little skittish, but [Bosco] loves everybody. He’s a sucker for a little petting.”
Jill Steele, manager of the visit experience in admissions, has found a few regulars who stop by the admissions office for her supply of dog treats.
“We have another wonderful dog called Casey, who goes for a walk every morning and who always stops in,” Steele said. “Sometimes his owners need to use the bathroom, and they will often stop in and grab a coffee [in the] early morning. Casey always makes his way into my office because he knows that I have treats in there. So he comes in and he says hello, and he sits right opposite that drawer he already knows has treats.”
Steele also fosters dogs. Her current foster is Nugget, who has been with her for almost three months since he was brought in to Pet Haven, the rescue with which Steele works. While he was brought in from a rough state due to being in a crate for most of his life prior, he has recovered under Steele’s care.
“He’s doing great,” Steele said. “And my students [in admissions] are just wonderful. They love getting updates on him and seeing photos.”
Though these are only a few of the dogs that make their way onto campus throughout the course of the year, there have been enough moments of students coming up to greet the dogs that Koven has noticed some patterns in his 13 years living in the Macalester-Groveland area.
“We’ve always walked through the campus during [our] early years,” Koven said. “There were times that we would come during freshman week and freshmen would just go crazy over the dogs because they’re missing theirs.”
Hengelfelt shared a similar sentiment as one of his reasons for coming to campus, besides training Penelope. There is a common notion that students are missing their pets, and it’s for good reason.
“It definitely was really hard to leave my cat behind and my pets as well,” Maren Good ’29 said. “I just missed them. I cuddle with my older dog, Aspen a lot, because she’s a therapy dog… I love her, and she was sweet. So I just sort of [miss] my pet.”
For prospective students considering Macalester, Steele points them towards PAWS@Mac, a program established by the Laurie Hamre Center for Health & Wellness, which focuses on giving students access to emotional support animals (ESA) when needed.
“I mean, we are so fortunate that we have some great people here that have dogs that are already registered as ESA,” Steele said. “You will see sometimes that’s advertised in the Mac Daily on finals week, or [during] heightened periods of stress in a student’s life, where those dogs will be available to come and give a hug or just sit with. Dogs are incredibly soothing, and an ESA dog is trained for that purpose in particular, to just lower stress levels and just provide someone with a period of calmness.”
Though for some first-years, the strategy is to say hello to one of the many neighborhood dogs that walk through campus. As one of the many first-years leaving pets behind at home, Good would often stop to greet the dogs during their campus walks when she had a spare moment.
“I definitely stop and pester their dogs,” Good said. “Sometimes if I’m running late to class, I can’t but I love seeing dogs, especially the corgis.”
Emily Keller ’29 mentioned interacting mostly with Penelope and Faunus Moffroid ’29’s dog Arrow. She, too, was among the first-years missing their pets, but her strategy was more about working through the moments in between seeing them.
“I knew I missed them before I left, but I wouldn’t say it was harder, because I knew I was saying goodbye temporarily,” Keller said.
And the goodbye is definitely only temporary. Keller and Good will be among the wave of students returning home to their beloved pets this winter break.
“When I get home, I’m just snuggling [my pets],” Keller said. “I’m gonna be playing with my dog because he’s getting old and kind of sick, so I’m gonna be spending time with him, taking him on walks. I’m gonna be appreciating my time with them more.”
