PORT TOWNSEND — Chloe, an old soul whose large gray shape and drooling smile were a fixture in Water Street’s business district, has passed to her reward.
“She died peacefully in her sleep Friday night,” said Annette Huenke, Chloe’s owner.
“She was my girl.”
Chloe, a 150-pound Neapolitan mastiff, served as the mascot of Ancestral Spirits Gallery, which Huenke owns with Alex Vinniski.
She was also a canine ambassador for Port Townsend, greeting tourists and allowing children to pet her as she lay on her bed on the sidewalk outside the gallery door.
“She was a kid magnet, a people magnet,” Huenke said.
“We have photographs of grown men lying with her on the floor.”
Friends across Peninsula
Huenke said Chloe had thousand of friends, including people in Forks, Port Angeles and Sequim, and was a favorite with families coming to Fort Worden State Park for reunions.
“She was a major stop, before they did anything else,” Huenke said.
“I have families who would come to Port Townsend three or four times a year to see Chloe.”
Huenke adopted the mastiff as a puppy 9½ ago from Jackie Pallister of the Fountain Cafe, across Washington Street from Ancestral Spirits’ first location.
Chloe weighed as much as human baby at birth, Huenke said, then gained 10 pounds a month.
Huenke will serve Elevated ice cream at a memorial celebration for Chloe at the Chetzemoka Park picnic shelter, 900 Jackson St., Port Townsend, on Sunday, March 20, from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m.
All friends and their human companions are welcome, Huenke said, and are invited to bring photographs and reminiscences to share.