A crowd at Clark College let out a massive “awwuh” Wednesday, as a low-riding corgi puppy hurled itself across the floor and into the arms of Elli McElhose.
“I’m so happy,” the 17-year-old Clark College student squealed to a friend.
In light of finals approaching, the Clark College Activities Programming Board hosted “Corgis Day,” a chance for students to de-stress with some puppy love. A pair of corgis, Gimli and Pippin, frolicked together and ran from visitor to visitor for pets and kisses. The popular Pembroke Welsh corgi breed is known and loved for its short stature and fluffy, tailless tushy.
McElhose, who is on the short side herself, said she and a friend joke when they go hiking that they are like actual corgis, stumbling over rocks and branches along the way. So when she found out about the event, she had to come.
“He’s so soft,” she said of Gimli’s greeting. “It made me feel like the chosen one.”
Waiting to greet the pair of puppers was a line crowding through Clark College’s student union building. Student organizers had reached out to a club for Portland corgi owners, hoping for a few more corgi families to show up; two corgis to dozens of students is a bit of a skewed ratio.
Fortunately, Elizabeth Durrin and 4-month-old Gimli answered the corgi signal.
“I was all over it,” she said, watching her puppy run around with his new friend.
While Gimli and Pippin may both have been named for vertically challenged “Lord of the Rings” characters, it’s just a happy coincidence. Wednesday was the first time the dogs’ two owners had met.
Steve DaMassa, who manages the fitness testing lab at Clark College, brought Pippin after spotting the posters on campus. He called Pippin “the best dog we’ve ever had.”
“He is just a sweetheart,” DaMassa said. “We have a couple of kids … and he is amazing with them.”
