Therapy Dogs for LITS Staff!

Meaghan O’Riordan, LITS Wellness Committee Chair, with Zuko

On Wednesday, May 29, 2019, the LITS Wellness Committee hosted a therapy dog event for LITS staff with a lot of help from Erin Mooney, who runs the therapy dog event for students every December. We decided to host this event because every December, staff ask why there is only one of these events each year and no event just for staff! Part of being well is mental and emotional well-being, and I love dogs, so as your chair, I took it upon myself to make this happen! Running this event comes at no financial cost to the committee, so we will be making a donation to Pet Partners, and we encourage staff who enjoyed the event to do the same as they are able.

Beth Shoemaker with Honey Duke (owner Elayne on the left)

From 10:00-12:00 we had Zuko with owner Mallory, GeGi with owner Donna, and Honey Duke with owner Elayne. All three of them work through Pet Partners. From 12:00-1:00 we had Barley (#barleykeith on Instagram) with owner Susan and Junebug with owner Alice, also with Pet Partners. We also had the pleasure of hosting Emory’s very own therapy dogs, Beowulf and Finn. Check out this great article about them from the Emory report, and their official landing page via Counseling & Psychological Services (CAPS) is here.

Beowulf, Emory therapy dog

Around sixty staff participated and enjoyed time with these wonderful dogs. Staff were very glad to take a few minutes out of their days to enjoy some therapeutic cuddles and learn more about the quirks of each dog. They also commented on getting to see several different kinds of dogs from the tiny 3.5lbs Zuko to the big 80-95lbs Beo and Finn. Please enjoy a few photos from the event and let us know if this is something you would like the committee to do again!

Jamie Weems with Zuko
Junebug
Dawn Francis-Chewning with GeGi (left) and Zuko
Eileen Rubnitz and Simon O’Riordan with Finn
Kelly Duquette with Barley (owner Susan on right)
Patrick Buckley’s daughter, Ariel, with Junebug
Kyle Fenton and Beth Shoemaker with Honey Duke
Pat Culpepper with GeGi
Simon O’Riordan with Beowulf

Comments

One response to “Therapy Dogs for LITS Staff!”

  1. Thanks for sharing! We love animals, they can do much more than we can even imagine.

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