GREENFIELD — Retired comfort dog Clarence, known nationwide for the positive impact he had on others at the scenes of tragedies, will be remembered by his handlers as “the rainbow after a storm.”
After nine years with the Greenfield Police Department, the 11-year-old Saint Bernard was euthanized at Brookside Animal Hospital on Tuesday after a period of seriously declining health, in the company of his owners and area police departments. Officers from Northampton, Montague, Lunenburg and Great Barrington, accompanied by their K9s and comfort dogs, attended the brief ceremony outside the clinic.
“He was one heck of a partner,” said acting Police Chief William Gordon.
Clarence, who joined the Gordon family as a puppy, first began working with the acting chief to help him overcome the effects of post-traumatic stress disorder.
“I was in a very dark place,” he recalled. “My clinician asked, ‘What makes you happy? I told her working with dogs makes me happy. … While he was helping me, I noticed he was also helping other first responders; he had an innate way of determining who was … overcome by anxiety. He would literally pull us to other people.”
Following the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, Clarence was invited to meet with the first responders who had to deliver news to families that their children had died.
“He changed the attitude of the room … by bringing a little bit of joy,” Gordon said.
Clarence also provided comfort to first responders in Boston after the marathon bombing in 2013, in Las Vegas one year after the 2017 mass shooting at a music festival, and in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania after the 2018 mass shooting at the Tree of Life synagogue. Clarence and the Gordons’ other comfort dog, Donut, have also helped Franklin County residents who have experienced the trauma of fires, accidents and other life-altering events.
In times of crisis, Clarence — who retired in March — was like “the rainbow after a storm,” Gordon said.
“Sometimes there’s a dark thunderstorm, and the trees are rustling and the thunder is coming,” Gordon explained. “It’s a little scary, because you don’t know what’s going to happen; you don’t know if a tree is going to fall on your house, but then the clouds break and a little bit of rainbow comes out and the rainbow is absolutely beautiful.”
In addition to helping the people and first responders of Greenfield, Clarence has traveled across the country, inspiring numerous police, fire and ambulance services to launch their own comfort dog programs. He’s even met with President Joe Biden.
“Pretty much everywhere we went, these cities were like, ‘That’s what we need, too,’” Gordon said. “Before I knew it, the (Massachusetts) State Police got a dog. Amherst got a dog. Northampton got a dog. Dogs started showing up all over this area, and all over the country.”
According to Gordon, a flag was flown in the U.S. Capitol on Tuesday in honor of Clarence, who comforted Capitol Police following services for slain officer William “Billy” Evans in April 2021.
Mayor Roxann Wedegartner, who attended Tuesday morning’s ceremony, said she was happy to have Clarence work for the city.
“I’m a dog fan, everybody knows that,” she said. “Clarence is a very special dog. I think it’s very fitting we’re all here to comfort him.”
Reporter Mary Byrne can be reached at mbyrne@recorder.com or 413-930-4429. Twitter: @MaryEByrne.