Back in my college days, a few friends were chatting one evening outside their apartment building when a stray dog wandered up. About a year old, this hound had no tags, no name or contact info on his collar, and no way for Animal Control to pick him up until 10:00am the next morning. It turned out that two families had lost hounds and were frantically looking for them.

The problem was, our landlords each had strict pet policies so the general consensus was to let him go. As a dog-lover who had lost a dog before, I knew what the owners were feeling and the likelihood that Scamp (as I temporarily named him) would last a night on the streets in a college town. So, he slept in the front seat of my car (picture above) with me in the drivers side until morning.

Northstar’s Little Friend
Northstar found themselves in a similar situation. Their initial reaction to finding a stray dog – no matter how cute – could have easily been to call Animal Control and been rid of him or just shooed him off the property. Instead they took him:

• Rollerskating
• Then on a bike ride
• Then to work
• Then on a wagon ride
• Then out for some ice cream

Heck, they even made him a season pass! Don’t believe me? The proof is on their Facebook page:




I think that last one is my favorite.

A Joint Effort
The initial post asked for anyone who knew the owners to contact Northstar and turned the reuniting of dog to family a community effort. Then on Tuesday, they updated the situation after taking him to the vet to check for an id chip.

No matter how it ends up, I think this is brilliant stuff from Northstar and perhaps some of the best social media content I’ve seen. It gives the brand a compassionate, human side that connects with dog lovers and allergy-prone people alike (that’s the only reason i can think of for not loving dogs…and even then it’s a poor excuse). Resorts are full of awesome little stories just like this one that are waiting to be told.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.