BC brings puppies to her BC students stay stress free before finals

Emily, a blonde terrier, greets BC students.

Lizette Chavez and Megan Fenwick

The Bakersfield College Library hosted a Miracle Mutts event, to help students de-stress before finals week on Nov. 27. The dogs were brought in courtesy of Marley’s Mutts and were placed in the library’s lobby allowing for students coming inside to see the dogs and interact with them.

BC students Andrew Combs, 24, and Julian Moreno, 21, were entering the library in order to study for finals when they saw the visiting canines and decided they had to stop.

Combs and Moreno both said they had adopted dogs and Moreno also shared he had taken in a stray cat, so stopping to pet dogs was something nice for them. When asked if these types of stress relieving events helped Combs said, “I mean, it makes me happy.”

Torie Beck, who has worked with Marley’s Mutts for almost two years, was working the event and shared why they participate.

“We come in to try to destress before finals [week] and break away some of the stress,” said Beck as she held on to Turtle, a brown Labrador, who seemed eager to greet the new students coming in.

Beck also shared some history about the dogs present. She said that some of the dogs brought in were personal pets of the people working the event but others had originally been trained as service dogs, like Dex, a black Labrador. Dex had originally been trained to be a seeing-eye dog but did not seem to take too well to lessons and found “a better career change” with Dex’s owner, according to Beck.

Other dogs had been rescued from abusive homes like Emily,a blonde terrier, who was saved from her situation and reunited with her sister Sadie, a grey terrier mix, who performed some tricks for treats for BC students.

Another treat lover was Sully, a white Bichon Frise, who would walk to where other dogs were given commands in order to receive some treats. Sully, who is blind, would respond to snaps from students and approach them for a pet.

The Miracle Mutts event has been held in past semesters to help students relax for finals. This Miracle Mutts event was held from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.