Now that’s one heck of a doggone story!

Rut Roh Raggy, Our Dog has been Found…

In life, sometimes things you have lost have a way of returning back to you.

My grandfather had a business called Art Forms where he produced sculptures and artwork for various companies, municipalities and organizations.  His work can still be seen all over Indiana, surrounding states and all the way up into Minnesota.  The Paul Bunyan statue at Timber’s Lounge here in Muncie is one such example of his work.  Other works include the side of the Dental Arts Building, St. Francis metal statue in St. Francis church and the large metal coin statue when you walk into the First Merchants Branch in Downtown Muncie.

Many years ago, my grandfather sculpted a pattern to make a fiberglass dog for a company who planned on having him make several of them.  Unfortunately, the project never went much further than one or two prototype dogs that were made.  One of the dogs was kept in storage behind our fiberglass facility.  As the years went by, the dog moved from spot to behind Arrowhead until it became difficult to locate.

Awhile back I told my wife about the dog and she thought it would make a great prop for her photography business. We went over to Arrowhead in an attempt to locate the dog but without any luck.   No one knew where the dog had run off to.  Was it thrown away?  Destroyed?  Stolen? Buried under other obsolete parts?

Then, last year as we were in T&H Sweeper (Great family owned company by the way located in Muncie IN) picking up a vacuum, my wife noticed a large dog in the back room.    She asked to look at it and Tamra Conatser said she would be more than happy to let her see it.  She looked at the dog and wondered if this was possibly our lost fiberglass dog.  It was the same size and shape and was made from fiberglass. How many fiberglass Dachshund’s could there be?  I was waiting in the car with our children when my phone rang.  It was Amanda asking me to come into the store.  With kids in tow, we all got out of the car and headed into the store.  Once inside Amanda said, “do you recognize this?”.  I said “yes, that is the lost fiberglass dog my grandfather made!”.

So how did the dog end up at T&H Sweeper?

Well, the wonderful Hickey Family owns some property by Arrowhead’s fiberglass facility out by the Stone Quarry.  Awhile back, they decided to have some people dive down to the bottom to see what they could find.  While the divers were down there, they found a safe, old shoes, lots of old bicycles and our dog!  We aren’t sure how the dog ended up in the bottom of the stone quarry, but somehow, she did.  The divers exhumed the body of the dog, washed it off and gave it to T&H Sweeper where they kept it in the back of their sweeper shop until fate reunited us with the dog.

When we saw her, she was in pretty bad shape.  She had holes in her, seamlines that were split and gashes in her skin.   Around this time, my wife was in the planning stages for her annual Runways for Rescues fundraiser to benefit Animal Rescue Fund  (ARF).  ARF is a fantastic organization that works to house displaced animals and find them new homes.  My wife asked if there was a chance that the dog could be fixed up and used at the fundraiser.    T&H Sweeper was kind of enough to let us have the dog back as they knew she needed some serious work.

Giving New Life to the Fiberglass Dog

We took the dog out to Arrowhead’s thermoforming facility in Eaton, IN and discussed with Tom Kishel the potential for the dog to be mended.  We told him the story of how we found the dog and it brought a huge smile to his face.  He definitely wanted to see this dog fixed up and returned to her old glory.  For the next few weekends, Tom, myself and my son all worked on the dog to get her prepared for her big reveal at the upcoming Runway For Rescues fundraiser.

Once the dog was prepped, we transported her to Arrowhead’s Muncie facility for a few finishing touches.   Thankfully Arrowhead’s Operations Manager, Tony Randolph, was able spare a few guys to clean the dog up a bit more and then give her a brand new paint job.  Randy Randolph and Brian Faulkner did a great job of getting her all ready for her debut at the Runway For Rescues Fashion Show.

The dog sat in the lobby of Muncie Civic Theater and blended well with the theme of the show.  She got lots of attention as did all the real furry animals there.  Animals were adopted, money was raised and smiles were had by all who attended.

This was a great project for my son, myself and my father all to work on together.  It was a great bonding experience and gave us a chance to teach my son about the business and all of the neat stuff we can make and have made over the years.  I know my grandfather was looking down on us during this and smiling knowing that we were putting the finishing touches on a project he started over 35 years ago.

So what did we name the Dog?

Well, this all took place just prior to when the Coronavirus outbreak started.   The day after Kishel Photography had the Runway for Rescues Fundraiser, COVID was being called a Pandemic and things started shutting down.  So we thought to ourselves, what would be an appropriate name for her?  To help remember this crazy time in our lives, we thought the best name for her would be Rona!

RONA THE FIBERGLASS DOG!!