West Ashley pooch celebrates 20th birthday with a huge party and parade
by Lorne Chambers | Editor
Twenty years is a long time. In dog years, it’s an eternity, an improbability, almost an impossibility. Yet, sometimes, things defy convention. And some dogs deny mortality. Such is the case of one West Ashley pooch who recently reached an astonishing 20th year on the planet. Don the dog—a.k.a. Don King, a.k.a. Don The King, a.k.a. Handsome Don—was celebrated last month with a “pawty” in his honor and a New Orlean’s-style parade where dozens of people and some of his furry friends turned out to honor the timeless terrier, marching the half mile from his home to where he has been immortalized with a mural in the Avondale Business District as part of the chART Outdoor Initiative & Gallery. Well, everyone else marched. Don rode in his chariot (a plush wagon called his Mr. Man Mobile) while wearing a crown made by his owners Tim and Kelly Rae Edgar.
Tim, a local artist and musician, painted the 4-foot-tall mural in the alley between Mellow Mushroom and the former Voodoo Tiki Bar & Lounge 12 years ago when Don was just a sprightly 8-year-old pup. But Don and Tim’s journey together began long before he was immortalized on that wall.
Tim rescued the scraggly little guy from a shelter back in 2007 while he was still living in Milwaukee and working at a neighborhood café. It was the nascent days of the smartphone era, so the café had a computer where people could check their emails. That’s where Tim logged on to the Wisconsin Humane Society website and saw Don’s face for the first time.
“[Tim] knew immediately this was his dog and went to get him,” says Kelly Rae. But the shelter was hesitant to give an animal over to some young, single dude who just wandered in off the street. But Tim was relentless. He went to see Don every day for a week. “He knew this was his guy! They’ve been best buddies ever since.”
Don was the name the shelter had given him, and Tim kept it because it seemed to suit him. Don came to work at the cafe every day with Tim, delivered pizzas with him for another job, they camped together in parks around the country, went on tour with one of Tim’s bands, and was featured on the cover of one of their albums, which Tim illustrated and turned into the Don birthday logo for all of his 20th birthday schwag last month.
Kelly Rae and Tim got married in 2022, but they have been together for 12 years. She calls herself Don’s “helicopter dog mom” and recently emailed the Wisconsin Humane Society, where Don was rescued in 2007. She wanted to know if they still had his records on file. They did and verified that his birthday was March 8, 2004 and even had a photo of his intake day three years later.
With his age verified, Kelly Rae, says the planning for his birthday party actually began months before March 8, his official birthday.
“I was at a friend’s birthday party for her human child and, naturally, realized Don would need one, too, and the brainstorm commenced,” says Kelly Rae. “We decided to have a backyard birthday party and then have a second line of sorts to his mural only half a mile away from us.”
She says what started off small, turned into quite a bash. Don Fest was complete with Don merch, including screen-printed T-shirts, buttons, stickers, and temporary tattoos. There were hot dogs, snacks, and Old Milwaukee beer, a nod to Don’s roots.
“For the pups, we had pupcorn, pupcakes, and two dozen doggie bags filled with bandanas, homemade treats, Don merch, and poop bags,” says Kelly Rae. “My sister made a balloon arch and ran a bubble machine filled with bacon and peanut butter-flavored bubbles. Our friend Kathleen made Don cupcakes — the cherry on the Don party sundae.”
Then they placed a crown on his head and put him in his little wagon. The whole party crew—friends, neighbors, pups—paraded Don through the neighborhood streets while playing New Orleans music on a speaker. Some folks had instruments — a washboard, kazoos, ukuleles, noise makers, and everyone made some noise for Don.
When they arrived at the mural, Tim talked about the time when Don had to stay at his parent’s house for about nine months while he was on tour with his band the Royal Tinfoil. During a stint when the band was back in Charleston, Tim missed his little buddy so much that he painted this mural of him.
“When he finally came back to me, I showed him my mural and the first thing he did was pee on it,” Tim told the crowd who responded with a roar of laughter. “I was not offended. I thought he was signing it.”
After Tim’s speech, he led the crowd in a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday, and then people took pictures of themselves with the dog of the hour in front of his mural. Following the festivities, Kelly Rae posted a short video of it all on TikTok, and the video quickly went viral. As of press time, the video had well over 32,000 views and hundreds of comments as people all over the globe continue to celebrate Don.
Twenty years is a long time for a dog to live, even a little one. Don is blind and dealing with kidney disease but still doing relatively well. After all, he’d be considered 140 in human years. So, what’s the secret to Don’s longevity? According to Kelly Rae, the biggest factors are having a dog sister, Mona, who he loves so much, walks every single day, and the staff at West Ashley Veterinary Center, which she calls “heroes.”
“Dr. Grayson Hudgins and the entire staff have doted on Don for years, especially the last two-and-a-half years since he began going there twice a week to receive fluids for his kidney disease. Having those skilled and compassionate folks who love him being around him so often has definitely made a difference,” says Kelly Rae. “He still is a rascal, showing his mischievous personality by getting into the bathroom trash, even knocking it down! He is still mostly motivated by meat treats and loves to give out kisses, which is why we still have our mistletoe hanging.”
