Meet Loki.
In Norse mythology, Loki is God of Mischief, perhaps better known in the same mythology as the two-timing half brother to Thor, God of Thunder – as well as in the classic Marvel comics and movies.
In Yorkton, however, Loki is much more beloved, and is decidedly fuzzier than Tom Hiddleston. He is a 4 year old black labrador retriever, with a ton of personality, a lot of fans, and a shocking level of smarts.
Unlike his namesake, though, the only thing Loki shares with his famous Norse predecessor is his intelligence.
To say Loki is merely intelligent is an understatement. His level of comprehension is astonishing. Sure, he can fetch a stick. In fact, when we arrive, Loki bounds up to the car, tail wagging, with a stick. But this is different.
Tony Ostafie, who can perhaps best be described as Loki's dad, is justifiably proud of his furry friend.
“When he was a puppy, he could tell the difference between a DeWalt and a Bosch flashlight. No special training or anything.
“He's a freak,” Ostafie says with affection.
“Watch this.”
Tony calls out.
“Loki! Bring me the saw.”
Without hesitation, Loki goes over to Tony's truck, rumbles around inside for a moment, gingerly grabs the handle of a small circular saw in his mouth and brings it over.
It's an impressive sight, but Loki isn't done yet.
“Aw, that's nothin',” says Tony.
“Loki! Bring me the flashlight. The Dewalt one.”
Once again, Loki saunters over to the truck and, of a myriad of tools, finds the Dewalt flashlight, grabs the strap by the mouth and brings it over.
Loki travels everywhere with Ostafie, and helps him out at work sites through his contracting company, Thor-Builders.
“Go get me a bottle of water,” Tony might say to Loki.
Loki would dutifully wander over to two cases of water – one Nestle, another Dasani -- pause for a moment, make a quick judgement call and bring back say Dasani.
“No, Loki; the Nestle water.”
Loki would then return and, amazingly, bring back the Nestle PureLife bottle.
Not surprisingly, Loki's got his own fan club, and people stop Tony to say hello to his fuzzy friend.
“You should've seen these two little old ladies,” said Ostafie.
“I went in [to Superstore], and I was in a hurry. He was in the back of the truck (in the open), and it's hot. I come out, and these two ladies are talking to the dog. I said, hey, what's going on? And they said, 'Well, we're trying to get the dog out of the truck.'
“I said, 'What? Why would you want to do that? He's OK.' But I took him out, and let him do a few things for them, and all that kind of stuff, and they said, 'We're worried that he was thirsty!' – but there was water in the back of the truck.”
Being a flatbed truck, it was easy to see the water was right there, but any excuse to get to Loki would have to do.
“I said, 'Well, would you like one?' And Loki goes into the cooler and gets them water.”
Now that's one smart dog.
