At Goshen Middle School in Goshen, Ohio, students are greeted each morning not just by teachers and staff, but also by Meg, a 2-year-old golden retriever who is named after actress Meg Ryan.
Meg has become such a key member of the Goshen community since joining the school as a trained facility dog last year that, according to handler Kelly DeNu, she’s considered a staff member in her own right. Like other staff members at Goshen, Meg even got the opportunity to sit for a yearbook photo.
DeNu, who is also a seventh-grade math teacher at Goshen, said Meg is as friendly as she looks. “The face you saw on her yearbook photo? That’s her all the time,” she told Good Morning America. DeNu said she brings Meg with her to work, and in the mornings, Meg will go around to different classrooms and greet everyone with what’s called her “golden growl.”
“She grabs her stuffy animal and she goes up and down in the seventh-grade hallway, every single teacher, and she just does like a little whine which says good morning to everyone,” DeNu recounted. “I thought she was crying and then I looked it up. It’s a thing golden retrievers do, called the golden growl, and she only does it in the morning.”
DeNu and Goshen Middle School Principal Wendy Flynn say the reception to Meg among Goshen students and staff has so far been overwhelmingly positive, and district staffers are planning to add a third facility dog at another local school in the near future.