Mark McColgan found her about 13 years ago on “one of those crappy, rainy, wet September weekends.”
“I saw this dog kind of frantic and looking like it was lost. So I pulled over and she was on her way back into the woods,” recalled McColgan.
When he got closer the dog turned around and jumped into his lap.
“Basically, I took one look at her and said, ‘this is my dog.’”
McColgan tried to find anyone who had reported a lost dog but no one came forward. At the time, McColgan’s living situation didn’t allow for dogs but what followed was an experience only a dog owner could understand.
“I had to kind of uproot my life to keep her but I did and she became my best friend,” he said.
McColgan named her “Kona.” He was never 100 percent sure of her breed but believed her to be a border collie/lab mix.
“We did a lot of adventuring together. A lot of going to see waterfalls in the middle of nowhere, just her and I. And then I got into trail running and she basically did too and started doing all my trail runs with me,” said McColgan.
No matter what the trail or excursion was, Kona always kept up.
“I was regularly doing 30-to-40 km trail runs which would take anywhere from five-to-ten hours in the woods,” he said.
In 2020, McColgan took over a local river and trail running group, renaming it the Saint John Trail Running. He says the group now has more than 2,200 Facebook followers with organized runs and pop-up events happening on a weekly basis.
It was through Saint John Trail Running that McColgan got to know Andy Carson, Felice Kamminga, and Sarah Lamos. Their long trail runs meant lots of time to talk and find out more about each other.
It was also when Kona’s health began to turn.
“She started getting a bump on her snout,” recalls McColgan. “I got her checked out and the vet basically told me that, ‘yes, it’s a problem. She has cancer.’”
While McColgan said surgery was discussed, the procedure was fairly invasive and would have left Kona with a poor quality of life.
“We had a good year with her and then I had to put her down in November of last year,” he said. “It was the most difficult thing I’ve ever had to do. Just even talking about it now, it’s tough.”
A little help from his friends
McColgan tried to continue running with the group but admits it was a challenge to sometimes participate in the ways he wanted to.
“I definitely dropped off. It’s funny, I didn’t really equate it to her, I equated it just having bad motivation. I was still doing things but I wasn’t doing a lot of running,” he says.
He eventually got a training plan and began dating, meeting someone who had her own beloved dog, a pit bull also named Kona.
“She had to put her Kona down a month after mine,” said McColgan. “It was extremely difficult for that month without my Kona but I also had her Kona distracting me too. It was kind of like I was going through it again, but I was able to help somebody else,” he said.
While out for a run, and in seeing what was hitting McColgan last fall, his buddies got an idea to help.
McColgan says it was Carson, a big fan of local craft breweries, who mused about a Saint John Trail Running beer and through some conversation the group decided, unbeknownst to McColgan, that a beer honouring his dog Kona was going to happen.
Felice Kamminga, who had worked at Foghorn Brewing Company in Rothesay, reached out to the head brewer and owner, Andrew Estabrooks, about the possibility of doing a dog-inspired beer.
The trio had already begun to brainstorm online about what the beer would be, the look and messaging on the can, and later decided a portion of sales would go to the Canadian Men’s Mental Health Foundation.
Having already worked out some ideas with Estabrooks at Foghorn, they presented their idea for a “Kona” beer to McColgan over Christmas.
Meanwhile, Foghorn had ideas of doing something with dogs all along.
“The name ‘Doghorn’ was sort of a fun idea that we had talked about a couple of years ago. We had originally thought about opening our own dog park over at the new brewery,” says Estabrooks.
Estabrooks said the Kona beer was also a chance to add some longevity to the Doghorn concept as a way to continue to pay tribute to other dogs who have played an important role in people’s lives.
With McColgan now on board, work on the brewing continued until its limited release earlier this month.
“They came to the table fully prepared to do everything that was necessary to help get this project off the ground,” said Estabrooks. He says McColgan’s running buddies also expressed interest in a specific style: a black IPA.
A big hit on launch
Estabrooks says the Kona Black IPA has received an excellent response since Foghorn launched the brew at its taproom earlier this month, with McColgan and friends in attendance.
“The cans have been flying out the door. I don’t want to say mostly gone now but it’s on its way to being mostly gone,” said Estabrooks.
While Estabrooks calls the Kona IPA ‘a one-off’ brew, there may be a time when a second beer in honour of another local canine is created. Estabrooks says there’s already a frontrunner that’s well known to Foghorn staff.
In honour of Kona, a portion of the proceeds from the beer’s sale is being donated to a foundation supporting men’s mental health Image: Foghorn Brewing Company
“My business partner Steve, his dog Sophie has been part of the brewery since Day One. She’s always been around. Definitely a big part of Steve’s life and she goes on deliveries and she’s been his friend throughout this entire project,” says Estabrooks.
“Steve lost his father a couple of years ago and I’m sure Sophie has been a big part of his life,” he says. “We have lots of great stories like that; people relying on their dogs for just moral support, mental stability. I guess we take that for granted until you don’t have it.”
For McColgan, life with Kona was always an adventure. Now, with Kona gone, he has something unique to look back on his time spent with her.
“I even kept the one original design that was done by hand, which is incredible in how well it was done,” says McColgan.
“I was blown away. I didn’t realize what kindness was until I started leading this running group. The people I have met from this group are some of the kindest people you would ever meet,” McColgan said.
Now back to running five times a week, McColgan said the whole experience has helped him adjust after losing Kona.
“It’s different for sure. I don’t have my best bud to run trails. But luckily, I’d say on trail running, I do have a lot of friends I can run with.”
Tyler Mclean is a reporter with Huddle, an Acadia Broadcasting content partner.
