CLEARWATER, Fla. — A local minor league baseball team gave a very special sendoff to their bat dog as she celebrated her retirement at a game over the weekend.
Layla, the 13-year-old white Labrador, helped retrieve discarded bats near home plate for the last six years for the Clearwater Threshers, which is a minor league affiliate of the Philadelphia Phillies.
At Friday night's game, Layla worked for the last time as the team played the Fort Myers Mighty Mussels, a Minnesota Twins affiliate. In a video posted by the team, she is seen happily walking across home plate, picking up the bat and walking back to the dugout while she wags her tail. As she does her job, fans are heard cheering and giving the pup a round of "a-paws."
Her celebration went viral over the weekend with a popular dog Instagram account called We Rate Dogs even posting about her. The account posts pictures of dogs and rates them out of 10 but normally rates them higher. The account also helps raise money for dogs in need of medical treatment, and it has its own nonprofit that helps shelter dogs.
In a post about Layla, the account rated her a 14 out of 10. They said she went viral back in 2018 when she was captured fetching her dad a beer from the fridge, which led her to become the Threshers' bat dog.
The team also got her a bone-shaped cake decorated like a baseball congratulating her on her retirement.
"Yup, we're crying," the team posted during her final sendoff.