Dogs became a big political issue when, according to legend, some legislators were visiting the new Evergreen campus and witnessed a dog doing his business on the library carpet. Included in the press coverage was an article in the Daily Olympian (Mar. 9, 1972, p. 8) that had a mention of a dog who would later become a very special part of Evergreen history. His name was Peanut Butter. He was a little terrier type of canine who was indeed the color of peanut butter and was a fixture on campus. Peanut Butter's owner was a student. The 1975 graduation ceremonies were noteworthy due to the fact that TESC was producing the first "pure" class, students who had attended the school for 4 years.

I recall two special features about that event. First, the only person wearing a cap and gown had a gorilla suit underneath it, and second, President McCann gave an honorary degree to Peanut Butter. Like many other TESC grads, Peanut Butter never left campus. Through the rest of the 1970s, I'd be walking across Red Square, getting headaches trying to understand some assignment, and this little dog would smugly trot by, nose in air, as if to say, "Ha! I have a degree and you DON'T. Chump!" Actually, seeing Peanut Butter always made me smile.

In 1983, I was saddened to see a lost dog poster in the Olympia Timberland Library neighborhood. It was for Peanut Butter, who must have been pretty old by then. He was an Evergreen grad that needs to be remembered.