Tristan Lopus
Contributing Writer
Despite the extreme adaptability that college encourages, students are consistently unable to survive one condition of college life: the absence of pets. Resorting to measures as pitiful as devoting entire Skype calls to seeing their dogs, or as risky as illicitly harboring pets on campus, students go to extreme lengths to satisfy the nagging need for pet interaction. Luckily, any student here at Wooster contemplating such desperate measures has a comparatively wholesome option to turn to.
Every Monday evening, students flock outside of Lowry to meet the smiling faces of Chris Hinton, Peggy Hibbs and the wagging tails of their many certified therapy dogs. Petting, hugging, and otherwise loving the amiable dogs is an easy, relaxing way for pet-deprived students to get their “fur fix,” as Hibbs calls it. “If my dog puts one smile on one person’s face, she’s done her job,” Hinton says, referring to Dixie, one of her boxers.
Hinton and Hibbs have brought their many personally owned therapy dogs to the College since 2003, when they were asked to exhibit at a school health fair and were met by an incredible demand for more. In response, they started coming every Monday. Their visits to the College comprise only a small portion of the dogs’ work: they also go to hospitals, nursing homes and schools, working about 30 hours a week in total. The services they provide could earn quite an income for Hinton and Hibbs, but they insist on working on an entirely volunteer basis and only use their personal dogs.
The name and number of the dogs in attendance on Mondays varies from week to week, with sometimes as few as three or four but other times as many as eight or 10. Currently, the core group consists of Hinton’s two boxers — Dixie (three years old) and Dozer (five years) — and Hibbs’s two newfoundlands — Addie (10 years) and Molly (five years).
This past Monday, Molly celebrated her fifth birthday, handing out Hershey’s kisses to all who came to pet her. Addie and Molly are also known for handing out holiday cards in December and valentines in February. Some of Hibbs’s favorite memories from her Paws to Pet experience are of students collecting these cards over their four years at the College, bringing them back each year to hang up in their dorm rooms and add to their collections.
While Hibbs and Hinton could fill entire books with these fond memories — and have been encouraged by friends to do so — their most cherished experiences come from the more powerful, moving side of the work that they do. Hibbs’s most memorable experience is of one Monday four years ago when she and her husband, a mental health professional, were facilitating their weekly dog petting as usual: Hibbs’s husband became concerned about one student who had been sitting silently, almost transfixed, petting Molly. Engaging him in conversation, Hibbs’s husband discovered that the student had been seriously contemplating suicide. After talking to the student about what Molly meant to him and referring him to proper mental health resources, he got the boy to promise he would come back to see Molly next school year. He did.
In regard to Hinton’s favorite memory of her experiences at the College, “you can’t pinpoint really one thing, but that right there is the best,” she says fondly, referring to Paige Fabry ’17 petting and being copiously kissed by Dixie.
Fabry is one of the regulars of Paws to Pet, coming every week without fail. She says spending time with the dogs every week — in particular, Dixie — is a great break from homework and studying as well as a much needed stress reliever. Graham Bromwell ’18 agreed, admiring that “they’re always happy, so they kind of brighten your day a little bit” no matter what mood you are in; an observation that is unequivocally evidenced by the smiles and affection exuding from all who pet the dogs.
If you or someone you know is plagued by pet deprivation, be sure to stop by to get your fur fix. The dogs are on campus every Monday from 5-6:30 p.m., outside Lowry in bearable temperatures and in the Wired Scot on colder days. If you go next week, be sure to bring this issue of the Voice with you — Hibbs and Hinton have promised that the dogs will be signing autographs.