It takes a really special and unique dog to do this job, and I think it's something that's very unique for Drake University to have a live mascot.

We give this little love that.

Oh my God.

Because we are the Bulldogs, we can have an actual live animal to represent the university.

All right, all right.

Ready?

Three.

Two.

One.

Here.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Oh, yeah.

He is kind of the living embodiment of what it means to be a Drake bulldog.

That he is Des Moines hometown dog.

Brings back.

Griff is Drake University's beloved live mascot.

His story begins with John Griffith, the athletic director who founded the Drake Relays.

He often brought his Bulldogs to the stadium, prompting the Des Moines Register to rename the athletes from the Drakes.

Yes, that's right, they used to be male ducks to the Bulldogs in 1908.

Fast forward to 2009, when a dog named porterhouse won the beautiful Bulldog contest.

He became the unofficial mascot, bringing his charm to campus events through 2013.

In 2015, Drake University launched their official Live Mascot program with the help of Aaron Bell, Porter House's owner.

That's when Griff arrived on the scene.

Now, Griff two carries on this legacy, connecting the past to the present and bringing the Drake community together in the cutest way possible.

I just adore dogs.

Every dog.

I love big dogs.

I've always wanted a bulldog.

We've had about 35 different foster dogs through the house, and then we've owned a number of them as well.

He is very much a part of our family.

He lives with me.

He lives with my family.

He is 100%.

A huge, important piece of this family.

Here we go.

Yeah.

About my kids.

Adore him.

We all love him very much.

We're on the move a lot.

He gets best about once a week.

He always has to be clean and and looking very fresh.

We get it all clean.

He represents the university and everything he does.

We're involved in everything that happens on campus.

No two days are the same.

Who stay.

We do a lot of photo shoots.

Video shoots?

It's just grown so much that finally I was able to get an intern for the live mascot program, which has been amazing.

It's just really special to see how much one dog can do for a university, and how special Drake is, because we're one of the few schools that has a live mascot, both in the country and especially in Iowa.

Show off these muscles.

Come here.

Come here.

You look good in that.

Come here.

Come here.

All the way.

Put your butt.

Down.

Put your butt.

Down!

Go!

Put your butt down!

There you go.

You stay.

I think a lot of people would be surprised at how much effort and hard work goes into this.

Good job.

That's so good, bud.

Come on.

You're all done.

You know, there's a lot of pressure to be a good representative of Drake.

It's a it's a huge responsibility to be the voice of Drake.

He's with me most hours of the day.

Well have visitors on campus that we have to greet.

The night.

We have, admissions visits.

We do a lot of recruiting for the university.

So organizations that put things on on campus, which is nonstop.

They often want Griff there to interact with people that come.

Hi.

Hi.

Oh.

Every single day that I have him on campus, which is just about every day I hear over and over again.

Oh, this made my day so much better.

Or.

Or I needed this today.

Or for coming.

I need good luck on my test.

We built a website to track Griff around campus.

He really does mean a lot to these students and to everybody in the Drake community.

And.

I definitely think that a lot of students view Griff as their dog.

A lot of them say they miss their dogs at home, just like I do, and so they have the chance to pet Griff and see their dog here on campus.

But it's really rewarding to see how happy that Griff is able to make everyone.

You're totally by me.

I love I hope he's asleep.

He's sleeping.

This is me in class.

Yeah.

Morning.

We do a lot in the community.

Oh, he's going to get himself out, apparently.

Griff, give us back.

Pet Food Drive is an annual initiative that was started with Griff one the OG.

Lots of boxes.

Come on.

We gotta take care of you.

That first year and we got maybe, maybe 100 pounds of food.

And since then, we have just gone big and we've had over 130,000 pounds of pet food donated for pets in need in the Des Moines community.

All of the food that's collected is donated to the Pet Project Midwest, and they are a local pet food pantry.

And their mission is to keep loved pets in their homes where they are loved, rather than surrendered to shelters due to an inability to feed them.

It makes a huge difference to pets in this community and keeps dogs out of shelters.

Hi, buddy.

You are so Cute!

We love the Grand Blue Mile.

It is such a fun community event.

Inaudible It's a chance for us to be around the Des Moines community, people that are affiliated with Drake, but also people that have no connection to Drake other than the fact that they showed up for the Grand Blue Mile.

It's a great opportunity for us to interact with people from all over the community.

He is a huge source of pride for Drake University.

She does so much work for Drake, so much behind the scenes that a lot of people don't even realize.

Congratulations.

I'll see you soon.

She's running all his social media pages.

She's making sure that he's cared for and making sure that he has breaks and making sure that he's healthy and safe.

And that's a big undertaking for one person to do with one dog that serves a university of 3000 people plus the community.

Having a unifying figure is more important now than ever.

We're living in very divided times politically, and there's just a lot of negativity.

But there is nothing negative about Griff.

inaudible.

I do believe deep in my core that this program is making a difference.