As Nicole Machenheimer and her seventh-grade class headed back from the Van Wezel Performing Arts Hall on the school bus in November 2023, Machenheimer’s thoughts weren’t just on the play they had seen, “The Call of the Wild,” which she called a “fabulous show.”

It was on a certain star who had taken the stage. 

Machenheimer asked her class what they thought of Maloney, the rescue dog from Satchel’s Last Resort. . .