When we see dogs out roaming the streets, we usually worry that they are lost or homeless – but that isn’t always the case.
A dog from Longville, Minnesota named Bruno proved that sometimes a dog just likes to make the rounds through town. The 13-year-old animal would walk four miles each day, visiting the ice cream shop, post office and more, just to say ‘hello’ until his sad passing in 2018.
The townspeople came to know and love Bruno, many of them looking forward to his visits. Bruno had a daily routine that started at Tabaka’s grocery store where he stopped around back to get a bite to eat. After enjoying his breakfast, Bruno went to the city hall and then wound up at the ice cream shop. While those were his regular daily stops, Bruno had many other places that he liked to visit on occasion.
Bruno was certainly well-fed and lavished with love since many people stopped to pet him, give him something to eat, and provide him with drinks when he was exhausted from his long walk.
Bruno belonged to a man named Larry LaVellee. Larry managed to wind up with Bruno in an unusual set of circumstances. The pup had been left in his driveway and a passerby mistook him for Larry’s dog. When the little brown ball of fur was presented to Larry, he decided that he didn’t want to let the puppy go. After he adopted Bruno, Larry tried multiple things to keep Bruno confined at home; however, when all methods failed, he finally determined that Bruno deserved his freedom.
The people in Longville certainly are glad that Larry made the decision to let Bruno walk where he pleased. The dog became so much a part of their town that they have erected a monument of him along with a large plaque, even before he, unfortunately, passed away in 2018. His statue is still visited regularly, with many who remember Bruno fondly leaving dog toys and flowers beside it.
“That’s because he wasn’t a dog,” Beth Holmdahl, who runs the information center for the Chamber of Commerce, told the Star-Tribune of Minneapolis. “He was a townie.”