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The Schine Student Center Dunkin’ Donuts makes his order before he gets to the front of the line. Almost every person smiles at him as he strolls down the Einhorn Family Walk. Most residents of Lawrinson Hall know the wiener dog’s name — Toaster.

“No one else on another floor has a pet,” said Thomas Wit, a sophomore who lived with Toaster in Lawrinson last year. “A lot of people would see (his owner) walking Toaster outside, and they would stop, say hi, try to pet Toaster. He’s like a little mascot for Lawrinson.”

Toaster — Toast or Toastie or Weenie — is Syracuse University senior Ellen Clark’s small, gray and spotted dachshund. The two are roommates in Lawrinson and Toaster helps Clark with her resident advisor duties in the Maxwell Citizenship Living Learning Community. For the spring 2024 semester, she brought the wiener dog to campus for the first time.

Wit woke up after returning from winter break last year because of barking down the hall. He was initially confused and then remembered his RA’s GroupMe message: his floor now had a dog.

Wit grabbed his roommate and knocked on Clark’s door. He remembers Toaster being super small and trying to break out of his owner’s room. Toaster’s presence on the floor made it easier for Wit to come home from winter break after leaving his dog and family.

“When you come back to your room, you either would see him running around the halls, or at night, you see him coming to the common room,” Wit said. “It was a nice experience to have because it was having a small part of home with you.”

Freshman Connor Transue said one of Toaster’s main giveaways is the jingle of his collar in rhythm with his bouncy walk. When Transue heard Toaster’s bells for the first time this fall, he opened his doors and the wiener dog bound into his arms.

Joe Zhao | Video Editor

Freshman Connor Transue and Resident Advisor Ellen Clark bond with Clark’s dog in a Lawrinson Hall lounge.

Toaster loves to run into rooms with open doors, laundry baskets and sometimes even an elevator. At the first floor meeting, Clark let him get acquainted with the residents. The elevator dinged in the middle, but some Lawrinson residents clicked all the buttons on the elevator of the 22-floor building because they thought it was funny.

Toaster ran to see who was there, but the elevator was empty. He waddled in and was transported down a floor by himself. Leaving the elevator, he encountered another RA’s floor meeting. Clark halted the meeting for 10 minutes before returning with Toaster.

“Many times he’s in the lounge, and so it seems like sometimes, the elevator doors will open up and just swarms of people and all the different floors will just come in to say hi,” Transue said of Toaster.

While Toaster might sometimes float between floors, many flock to Clark’s floor just to see him. Often people tell Transue they see the dachshund around all the time. He then gets to tell them he’s on his floor and invites them over.

For Clark, Toaster breaks the ice and creates a way for her to interact with residents. Transue said his friends on other floors barely see their RA’s, but Clark regularly gets knocks on her door from him and others.

“I feel like sometimes, as an RA, you’re like, ‘Oh my God. Like, what’s wrong?’” Clark said. “But for me the first reaction is ‘They want to see the ween.’”

Transue and his friends love to hang out on their floor with Toaster. The dog joined them to watch the presidential debate on Sept. 10 and sat with them as they wrote their first college essays.

Brielle Brzytwa, a freshman on Clark’s floor, works at Trader Joe’s. She secretly asked Clark what Toaster’s favorite treats were. Brzytwa returned from work soon after with a box of peanut butter dog treats, which Clark now has sitting on her dorm’s dresser.

“(Toaster) just brightens up my day,” Brzytwa said. “So I thought I’d brighten up his.”

Joe Zhao | Video Editor

Ellen Clark watches as her dog parades around Lawrinson Hall.

Last fall, Clark had nearly taken a semester off. Her life felt “gloomy” — she was exhausted and overwhelmed. Over Thanksgiving and spring break, Clark was forced to stay because of the cost of travel, with her family being in Idaho.

Before Clark made the decision, her mother — Dig Chrismer — and therapist agreed that she should consider getting an emotional support animal.

Clark looked into this idea and decided on two guidelines — someone social and small. At home, she has big dogs and loves them. However, traveling back to Idaho with Toaster and living in the dorm, she preferred a small dog.

Instagram knew she was looking. She would see dachshunds while scrolling on Reels. It just worked out that one of her brother’s friends had a litter of dachshunds. While Clark was still at school, her brother, along with Chrismer, visited his friend’s farm to choose a dog.

Most of the puppies were quiet and gave Chrismer a side eye. But not Toaster, then known as “the gray one.”

“When I picked him up, he gave me that side eye, but then started licking my face nonstop,” Chrismer said. “He’s the one.”

When Clark returned home for winter break last year, they picked him up.

Since she’d never met Toaster, she questioned whether he liked her. But she carried him all the way home as he fell asleep in her arms.

Clark knew she wanted to name “the gray one” something humorous and cute. One of her friends had a dog named Spatula, and she wanted to replicate it. Because of the dachshund’s silly personality, they went for playful names of inanimate objects.

They tried Concrete, among other names, before reaching Toaster. Toaster came with an abundance of nicknames, too. Her mom tried to convince her out of the name, until it finally grew on her.

Toaster’s qualities helped Clark put her life into context. She is a lot more patient, forgiving and social. She’s mended bridges with people because of how much her dachshund loved them.

“Oh, if my dog’s not concerned, like, is it really that serious?” Clark said.

As her mother, Chrismer appreciates SU allowing Clark to have Toaster in her dorm. There are times where she knows Clark is stressed but feels reassured that Toaster is there.

Joe Zhao | Video Editor

Syracuse University students sit and pet Ellen Clark’s dog, Toaster, as she walks by.

“She can divert that energy to the dog because he either needs a walk or he needs attention, or she can just sit down and rest with him and cuddle him,” Chrismer said. “He is there for her 100%. It is a huge relief.”

When Clark brought him to school, Toaster was surprisingly good in a dorm. He may bark when Clark is gone for a long time or if he wants something, yet her residents don’t mind it. They like to know that he’s there. He did pull up some carpet that was sticking out in her dorm — but Clark had facilities fix that right away.

Clark took Toaster to training classes during his first semester on campus. He graduated later that year and became very socialized by living in a dorm.

Because Toaster’s a “dorm dog,” he adores the attention. He never barks at someone unless he wants to play. While some dogs are food motivated, Toaster is people motivated. Sometimes when Clark takes Toaster out on the Lawrinson courtyard, students in the dorm will yell and ask her if that’s Toaster.

Clark doesn’t know what she will do when Toaster isn’t living in a dorm building and surrounded by residents year-round. She will have to search for another large group of people when she graduates at the end of this spring.

Brzytwa and Toaster have the same birthday, Oct. 6, and they will be celebrating together in the Lawrinson penthouse. Even people who walked by Toaster on the Einhorn Family Walk said he looked all grown up. One year later, with one year left, Toaster is a campus celebrity.

“They suit each other really well, and they each bring something to the table as our RAs,” Brzytwa said of Toaster and Clark. “Toast is watchdog.”

Published on September 19, 2024 at 1:50 am

Contact Rosina: rlboehm@syr.edu