That lonely library dog whose sad face went viral has plenty of pals to read to him now.

Sting, the reading therapy dog who has a weekly shift at the White Bear Lake branch of the Ramsey County Library, is a worldwide hit after his human posted a picture of the lonely-looking retired greyhound, requesting more young readers for its Paws to Read program.

The post has been shared 100,700 times and had more than 77,000 likes — actually, mostly sad faces and hearts — as of Wednesday morning.

“It’s been from everywhere,” said the greyhound’s owner, John Muellner of Hugo, on Wednesday. “Australia and New Zealand, lots of posts from the Philippines, all over Europe and South America.”

The library, too, has fielded calls from all over the country.

“I talked to a 16-year-old who wanted to drive up from Florida,” said Ann Wahlstrom, children’s librarian at White Bear Lake. She’d just gotten off the phone with a Californian who wanted to make sure Sting had someone to read to him.

Needless to say, the 10-year-old retired racer is booked for awhile.

That’s a change from how things had been going for Paws to Read, said Therese Sonnek, manager of the White Bear library, who had no idea requests were “going to explode.”

The program — available by other names throughout the metro area — aims to improve literacy by giving children a safe, nonthreatening place to read aloud to therapy animal partners.

“It’s meant to be a treat for kids to get to come to the library and read to a dog,” Wahlstrom said. “And the dog is going to sit there and give them nothing but positive feedback. The program is meant to be a wonderful time for a child to work on literacy. And so many studies show that it increases reading fluency, it increases vocabulary and it increases kids’ desire to read — so it’s win-win for everybody.”

The staff wins, too. “I mean, who doesn’t want a dog at work?” Wahlstrom said.

She said Sting is mellow and unflappable. “He really is a sweet guy,” she said. “He walks in and he just comes behind the desk and leans on you, like, ‘You can pet me now.’ ‘And now I’ll go lay down on my blanket.’ And then he’s ready.

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Muellner assures us that Sting is a happy boy, despite his sad-looking demeanor in the photos. “They do tend to look a little dour anyway,” he said. “Why the long face, right?”

In addition to his library duties, Muellner said, Sting brings his therapy to Gillette Children’s Hospital and a senior home, and he acts as an ambassador for prospective adoptive families for retired greyhound racers.