Adoptable dogs and cats visit YSU campus

By denise dick | denise_dick@vindy.com

YOUNGSTOWN

Kobe, Charlie, Alice and McGonagall were the most popular kids on Youngstown State University’s campus.

To be fair, they’re really cute, furry and cuddly. And they enjoyed the attention.

New Lease on Life in Struthers brought six big dogs, 11 small dogs and puppies and 16 kittens to campus Monday for Puppy Palooza.

“This is the fourth year, and they do it two times each year,” said Michelle Hyder, a New Lease on Life volunteer.

This year’s crop of critters was the largest.

“Every year they want us to bring more,” Hyder said.

Most of the shelter’s dogs and cats – other than those that have been adopted but not yet fixed – came to the event.

Ryan McNicholas, fitness and wellness coordinator at YSU’s Andrews Recreation and Wellness Center, said Puppy Palooza is popular with students.

Studies show that spending time with animals is an effective way to alleviate stress.

“We’ll have 400 to 600 people come through throughout the day,” McNicholas said.

The university works with the shelter to bring the animals to campus twice each year – at the beginning of the school year when students are first returning to school, and the end of the academic year when students are preparing for final exams, he said.

For Aaron Benka, a sophomore from Grove City, Pa., the event provided his canine fix.

“I miss my dogs,” the civil engineering major said.

He has two, Mugsy and Jasmine.

“They both look just like him,” Benka said, pointing to Charlie, a brown and black mixed breed.

Freshmen Cassie Shope and Noah Yocum, both from Cortland and undecided about their majors, stopped between classes to play with Atlantis, a fluffy black kitten.

They waved Atlantis’ leash as the kitten jumped, pawed and flipped over the cord.

“We love animals,” Yocum said.

“We heard there were puppies here and we came running,” Shope added.

Junior Cheyenne Kirkwood of New Castle, Pa., and sophomore Shayna Hamilton of Wellsville, took turns holding a tiny puppy.

“To relieve my stress of the program,” said Kirkwood, a nursing student, about attending Puppy Palooza. “No, it’s not too bad.”

“It’s not bad yet,” joked Hamilton, also a nursing major.

The experience offered a diversion from their studies.

“I’m obsessed with dogs,” Hamilton said. “It makes me happy.”

She has one dog, Miley, and Kirkwood has three, Bella Rose, Jinx and Katie Bear.

It was a return visit for Alexis Timko of Howland, a sophomore majoring in journalism. She attended Puppy Palooza last year, too.

“I had to come back,” she said.