Paw-la's Pride And Groom

09/04/2026

07/31/2026

Vernon's on Third closed in March after 41 years. The owner had died in February and the family couldn't run it.

The black lab kept coming anyway.

That dog belonged to the owner and had ridden in with him every single morning since a pup, sat by the register, and got a biscuit out of the coffee can behind the counter. The family took the lab home after the funeral, out on the north side of town, about two miles.

The lab was on the sidewalk at Vernon's the next morning at seven.

They drove out, picked the dog up, brought it home. Same thing the next day. And the next. Somebody finally put a note in the window of the empty store with a phone number on it.

The woman who runs the flower shop next door started leaving water out. The barber two doors down got in the habit of a biscuit around eight.

This went on more than a year.

Here's the part that gets people. The building sold last spring to a couple opening a coffee place, and they knew about the dog before they ever signed anything, because half the block told them.

There's a bed inside the door now, and the lab is 12, and gets there most mornings around seven while they're still setting up.