{"id":75299,"date":"2023-10-17T15:57:37","date_gmt":"2023-10-17T20:57:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=75299"},"modified":"2023-10-17T15:57:40","modified_gmt":"2023-10-17T20:57:40","slug":"keren-the-comfort-dog-returns-to-campus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/?p=75299","title":{"rendered":"Keren the Comfort Dog returns to campus"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By NOAH PARKER<\/strong>
Tiger Media Network<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keren the Comfort Dog was back on campus this past Thursday. In the Union, just down the hall from Starbucks, Keren greeted students in an effort to help with midterm stress. She even had stickers students could put on their water bottles this time around.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOur students at this time of year, midterms\u2026 they\u2019re stressed out,\u201d Mental Health Counselor Patrick McGinnis said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keren is part of the Lutheran Church Charities (LCC), a group dedicated to helping those in need, especially during a humanitarian crisis. She is part of their K-9 Ministries, which is made up of purebred Golden Retrievers and handlers trained to interact with those in need, including first responders. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Keren herself is trained as part of three ministries and has a little card for each: a general comfort dog, the military ministry, and the police ministry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s [the LCC] an organization and they go out with storms or disaster shootings,\u201d said on of Keren\u2019s handlers Linda Rust.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rust explained how, prior to the comfort dogs’ introduction, the LCC took themselves and whatever was needed to places like disaster locations, but felt like they weren\u2019t able to help everyone the way they needed to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of them have gone to so many different things, they\u2019ve had dogs at Sandyhook years ago, Colorado has had some shootings, and they\u2019ve been out there for those things,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s amazing what a dog can do that we can\u2019t, and they don\u2019t do anything but be there.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This isn\u2019t Keren\u2019s first time on campus, and according to McGinnis, it won\u2019t be the last, saying she\u2019ll be back at the end of the semester.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe attracts people,\u201d he said. \u201cThose who most need her comfort show up. They\u2019re here and when they walk past it\u2019s amazing the different demographics that melt when they see her\u2026 a dog does wonders.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many students stopped by, petted, and took pictures with Keren; one even brought a yoga mat she could sit and lay on instead of the tile floor. The pictures were printed straight out of the camera and given to those who wanted them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At one point, a long line formed of people waiting their turn, or just watching and smiling. Eventually, this line turned into a large group photo with Keren and her handlers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
The table Keren was at had stickers that people could put on their water bottles this time around.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Keren sits nicely, waiting for students to stop by and pet her.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
After a while, a student came by with a yoga mat for Keren to lie on, which she promptly took advantage of.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Keren is named after Job\u2019s youngest daughter in the bible, who is one of three beautiful daughters.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A large group of students take a picture with Keren.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A line forms as students arrive at the Union around lunchtime.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Keren gets some scratches behind the ear from a student.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Keren gets a head pat from a passing student.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
A student poses for a picture with Keren, which was printed out and given to the students there.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Keren watches as students pass by, waiting for one to stop to visit.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
Mental Health Counselor Patrick McGinnis says that Keren will be back near the beginning of November prior to break, so more students will get the opportunity to meet her.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"
When she\u2019s not working as a comfort dog, Keren loves to squeak tennis balls and play with other dogs, but \u201cshe\u2019s not allowed stuffies because she tears them up,\u201d Linda Rust said.\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By NOAH PARKERTiger Media Network Keren the Comfort Dog was back on campus this past Thursday. In the Union, just down the hall from Starbucks,… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":142,"featured_media":75309,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3397,3398,11],"tags":[69,131,14849,9371,15013],"class_list":["post-75299","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-area-news","category-campus-news","category-news","tag-fhsu","tag-fort-hays-state","tag-keren-the-comfort-dog","tag-mental-health","tag-noah-parker"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tigermedianet.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/10\/Keren-10_12_23-8-scaled.jpg?fit=2560%2C1707&ssl=1","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75299","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/142"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=75299"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75299\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75314,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75299\/revisions\/75314"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/75309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=75299"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=75299"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/tigermedianet.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=75299"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}