Editor's note: Teacher's Pet is a Ball State Daily News series featuring university faculty/staff and their pets. If you have any suggestions as to who we should feature next, send an email to features@bsudailynews.com.
Somewhere deep in the depths of the Unified Media Lab in the Art and Journalism Building, there is a square of carpet that was once the victim of a scar-ridden, hodge-podge wiener dog’s bowel movement.
The culprit was journalism instructor Colleen Steffen’s dog, Smokey.
“He’s a terrible dog,” Steffen said. “I love him.”
Steffen and her family rescued Smokey from the Animal Rescue Fund about two years ago after losing their dog, Daisy, after 17 years. Smokey was the first dog they laid eyes on.
“I heard he came from the streets of New Castle,” she said. “Was it literally the streets? I don’t know. He’s had a tragic background, which is why I excuse all of his terrible behavior. Like, he’s truly a terrible dog.”
Steffen said Smokey bites everyone in sight, except herself, her husband (journalism instructor Ryan Sparrow) and their daughter Tommy.
“He has bitten all of our friends,” she said. “He bit a member of our [journalism] staff here at Ball State in the quote-unquote crotchular region.”
Though he's not very friendly to others, he loves his family.
“It’s everyone but us. He loves us,” Steffen said. “Like, I’m his girlfriend.”
When he’s not biting family-friends and journalism professors, Smokey spends his time dressed in doll clothes, having adventures on the slide with Tommy, and longing to sink his teeth into the UPS men.
Another one of Smokey’s favorite activities is exploring. Steffen said this 11-pound wiener mutt can squeeze through their fence like it’s Swiss cheese.
He likes to meet up with an elderly lady while she’s gardening. She then herds him back, with Smokey growling at her the whole time.
Despite all of his "terrible behavior," he will forever have a place in Steffen's family.
“I feel like he knew we were coming,” Steffen said. “A normal family would have said, ‘We can’t keep this vicious dog. This is not going to work,’ but we can’t. He needs us. We’re like the perfect family for him. He does not know how lucky he is.”
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