Among the flowers and signs lining the sidewalk at Annunciation Catholic Church, there were also six golden retrievers cuddled with children and adults as they grieved, just days after a mass shooting devastated the community.
Kristen Winn watched in tears as her daughter Emily, a student at the Annunciation school, sat on the curb with her arm wrapped around Gideon, a 10-year-old English cream retriever, on Friday.
“I just really appreciate that they’re here,” Winn said of the dogs. “This really helps.”
South Minneapolis residents Megan Lennon and her daughter came to Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis to bring flowers and stayed to cuddle with Gideon the comfort dog on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. (Alex V. Cipolle / MPR News)
Megan Lennon and her daughter, who live nearby, brought flowers to the site and sat with Gideon and another retriever, Mary, who traveled from Janesville, Wis.
“It’s overwhelming, walking up here,” Lennon said in tears. “I had no idea how big it was going to be, and just being overwhelmed with emotion and grief, being drawn to the dog was a really, really calming distraction in the moment.”
Annunciation was still reeling from a mass shooting on Wednesday that killed two children and wounded 18 others.
The retrievers are part of LCC K-9 Comfort Dog Ministry, an outfit based out of Lutheran Church Charities near Chicago. The ministry has 130 dog teams stationed around the U.S. that travel to communities in crisis from the shooting in Uvalde, Texas, to the recent fires in California.
Gideon and his team are the only ones based in Minnesota, stationed at St. Michael’s Lutheran Church in Bloomington.
“What we’ve found over the years is that as the people pet the dogs, they start to talk and they start to relax,” said Pam Lienemann, one of Gideon’s handlers. “Then we know we have helped begin the healing process.”
Lienemann said Gideon visits about 18 Minnesota senior living communities, as well as Normandale Community College and Fairview hospitals.
“But when a crisis like this happens and we pull dogs, we clear his schedule, and we are 100% here for this community to help them,” she said.
When news of Wednesday’s shooting broke, Lutheran Church Charities deployed five additional dog teams to Minneapolis from the region. The dogs arrived on Wednesday night in time for the vigil at the Academy of Holy Angels.
“Once the invitation comes in, then our promise to folks is that we will have boots and paws on the ground within 24 hours,” Leinemann says. “This time, we topped ourselves. We had boots and paws on the ground within 12 hours.”
Lutheran Church Charities President Chris Singer, on site at Annunciation Church, said the dogs restore a sense of safety.
“One of the things I’ve watched time and time again is a child who sits down next to a dog, maybe has never said a word about what they’re feeling or what the fear is that they have,” Singer says. “But they begin spending time with the dog, and pretty soon they start sharing some of those feelings, and it’s a really great release for them.”
English cream retriever Hagar, from Appleton, Wis., snuggles with children outside the Annunciation Catholic Church in Minneapolis on Friday, Aug. 29, 2025. “They feel how soft she is and how loving, and she looks so soulfully in their eyes that they can tell her anything,” said Joann Schwan, one of Hagar’s handlers. (Alex V. Cipolle / MPR News)
Handlers Joann and Tim Schwan traveled with the retriever Hagar, 6, from her home base at Faith Lutheran Church in Appleton, Wisconsin. They say the comfort dogs receive 2,000 hours of training to stay calm with people who are grieving or in crisis.
“They feel how soft she is and how loving, and she looks so soulfully in their eyes that they can tell her anything,” Joann Schwan said. “They open up to her.”
Related Articles
‘A future filled with hope’: Minneapolis community unites to process the tragedy
Loons fans send message: ‘End gun violence’ after mass shooting in Minneapolis
Federal funding to identify threats cut
Handmade cards from classmates comfort a girl wounded in Minneapolis church shooting, aunt says
St. Paul offers to put cops outside every school for week after Minneapolis school shooting
Leave a Reply