Meet Sting.

He's a 10-year-old therapy dog who lives with his human, John Muellner, in Hugo, Minnesota.

Twice a month, the duo visit their local library, where children ages 4-8 take turns reading to the greyhound as part of Paws To Read, a program designed to instill confidence in young students as they develop literacy skills in a safe and low-pressure environment.

During a normal session, Sting will sit with three kids, each of whom get about 20 minutes to practice reading from the book of their choice.

But his appearance on the 7th of February was anything but normal because, astonishingly, no one turned up.

In an attempt to avoid future no-shows, Muellner took to Facebook, where he shared snaps of the solitary pup doin' a sleepy snooze, seeming resigned to his fate:

"Unfortunately nobody signed up to read to Sting at the White Bear Lake library tonight. If you know of a 4 to 8yr old who would like to read to a dog. Please contact the White Bear Lake library by phone or their website about the Paws to Read program. Sting will be there Feb 21st 6:30 - 7:30."

Because the internet isn't a total trash fire, friends and family starting bumping the post and it quickly snowballed into a viral juggernaut, tallying more than 100,000 shares and spilling over to pretty much every other social media platform under the sun.

The general consensus: Sting was a very good boy and he should not be left hanging like that.

Even better, it had its intended effect: Sting is now booked up for "months" and interest in the Paws To Read program has likewise exploded at other locations in the library's network.

In an interview with Today, one of the librarians revealed that they were flooded with supportive messages from parties both near and far:

"People are asking if we could hold the phone to Sting's ear so they could read to him .... The whole staff of a Petco in California called to say they love Sting. It's just amazing, the outpouring."

While Muellner is proud of his retired racer, he also wants to assure everyone that the greyhound never suffered for a lack of attention.

Staffers at the library routinely gush over him whenever he comes in and that stoic, forlorn expression of his is just the dog's default setting.

"It's his signature look," he said. "It's just his look."

For more on Sting's story, visit his adorable Instagram account.