As students enter the home stretch for finals week, let us take a brief moment to get away from the eyesore of seeing notes, textbooks, and other study materials in exchange for some adorable dogs.
Dog B.O.N.E.S., acronym for Building Opportunities for Nurturing and Emotional Support, came to Mugar Library to help students in need of some de-stressing. What other way is there to put a smile on one’s face and melt anyone’s hearts than to bring dogs.
The main mission of this non-profit, Massachusetts-based organization is to provide people therapeutic contact with these adorable creatures. Something so simple could make a big difference.
Therapy dogs are such popular events at BU that if you were not able to get an appointment with the therapy dogs this year, make sure that you come early next year! It is an appointment-based session where students can go as an individual or in a group. The sessions last for 10 minutes in which you enter a room where there are two dogs and their owners. Students immediately clamored to the dogs as the dogs began wagging their tails.
One dog named Annie Oakley, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, looked at the students curiously as we all began to “aw” and pet her crazily. She was quite a lazy dog, only wanting people to feed her without her wanting to do any tricks until the owner gave her a gentle push.
“The dogs usually do a one-hour shift, as they usually get tired when they see many people,” said the owner of the Annie, “but she loves being with people.” It is not hard to see how quickly the dogs can get tired when they have so many to please. Except the dogs do not have to do much to make us pleased.
The ten minutes went by quick, and before we knew it we were swiveled out of the room for the next group of students. However, those ten minutes gave a nice moment of relief, comfort, and happiness—before I had to bury my nose deep into my textbook again.
