If dogs could tell us about their dream job, it would probably be something that involves fetching things. But as it turns out, this dream job exists, at least for an energetic pupper named Ripken.
Back in 2019 Ripken was hired by Durham, North Carolina-based Minor League Baseball team Durham Bulls to retrieve baseball bats that get left in the field by players after hits. The Labrador retriever has been so great at this that he continues to return to his job every season.
Ripken’s fetching skills haven’t gone unnoticed by the crowd. He has become one of the team’s biggest stars and part of the reason why the crowd fills up every Bulls’ home game.
“I actually sometimes have to apologize to the players, because they’ll ground out to second, and all of a sudden, the crowd just goes crazy,” his trainer Michael O’Donnell shared with CBS in a recent interview.
According to O’Donnell, Ripken showed keen interest in fetching from a very young age. He honed his bat-retrieving skills with an amateur team before being spotted by the Bulls.
In between his work in MiLB, Ripken is also making guest appearances at college football games, where he is fetching kicking tees.
