How a Retired School Bus Found New Life as a Dog Service

If you spot a short school bus rolling through Mitchell, South Dakota this summer with a pack of dogs peering out the windows, you are not hallucinating. You are seeing exactly what you think you are.

From Social Media Joke to Community Innovation

The Barking Bus, launched this spring by Mitchell photographer Ann Long and South Dakota State University nursing student Ava Brannan, takes up to eight dogs at a time on 90-minute outings that include neighborhood cruising, group walks, treats and plenty of attention. It is a small business born from a simple, shared moment of inspiration.

Long and Brannan had been sending each other videos of dogs riding school buses that kept appearing on their social media feeds.