I have a lot of pet names for him.
"Bubba" is probably
the biggest one. And I call "Muffin," too.
He is referred to as
the second Growley or Growley II.
But as call sign is "Tank,"
which means he responds to "Tank,"
he's familiar with "Tank" and that is his name.
All the handlers call him "Tank."
It seems like most of
the student population calls him "Growley," just
because that's what they known him as.
Growley is a Certified USDA Animal,
which means he is permitted around
the university to do exhibition events.
He goes to all sorts of events.
Every Corps event, whether it's parades,
pass in reviews, football games,
and then any event
that's requested by organizations
either in the Blacksburg area or on campus.
He does have
a lot of therapy training and background,
so that is where his skills are rooted,
where he really, truly is comfortable.
He worked at a hospital,
he worked in a prison system,
so he has quite a bit of a resume.
And then he came to us in 2016
and now he's a happy, lovable dog
who can do it all.
So the first time I
ever took him to the beach,
I could never have imagined
how excited to Tank would be.
I never heard the dog make
any sort of vocal sound prior
to the beach and after
taking him to the beach,
multiple times a week now,
he'll whine and talk to
you and he's so much more vocal and I
brought him back and all the handlers
are like, "he talks to you now, he's so vocal."
The pandemic happened and so
Tank ended up coming home and living with me.
So I got an extra six months with him.
Then after the pandemic,
it was apparent to me that he
was not necessarily eager
to do an entire football season alone again.
How can you blame
and nine-year-old dog after COVID
to not want to go back in full force.
He'll be retiring
at the end of the semester.
There's an application process going on right now,
to decide who's going to get him after he retires.
We do know it will be
one of the former handlers
that worked with him because they
know him best and he knows them.
He could really end up anywhere in
the country depending on
where that handler lives.
Our team advisor and I started working on
really solidifying a transition program.
And in that transition program,
it became apparent that it would be
easier for Tank to keep
living with me since I already had him
for such an extended period of time.
So he's still with me until his retirement.
Growley III is going to take
over the majority of the events,
but he (Tank) will still be around
as a therapy tool for our cadets
until December, so his official retirement
will be this winter break.
It's going to be really hard for me.
But I do know that he'll be with
somebody that will be able to
properly care for him
and give him a really great retirement. I think
that's the only thing that
keeps me alright with the situation.
He's special and he'll make somebody else's
life really special.
He'll ive out the rest of his days
happy and healthy as a normal dog.
I think that he's brought so much love
to this school that it's
only appropriate that we
continue that in our next dog.
I hope that the program continues
to thrive as well as it did under Tank.