“Nothing really… Maybe just make him a little less lazy,” Wittenberg student Samantha Leibfarth said about her 4 Paws pup, Gonzalez, when questioned if she’d change anything about her furry companion.
Gonzalez is Speedy’s [the pup featured last week] brother and is enjoying campus alongside his family and best puppy friends, Georges, since one of his other moms lives with Georges’ moms.
Gonzo for short, the pup spends his days romping with Georges, playing with his tennis ball, although he gets his favorite toy taken away sometimes for eating too much of the green fuzz, and sleeping a lot.
“He’ll sleep anywhere and everywhere,” Leibfarth exclaimed.
The senior shares her pup parenting responsibilities with other senior students Laura Jansing and Korie Sharrar. Some days, the pup travels with Jansing to work in the admissions office to put the smile on the faces of Witt’s many student (and real adult) workers as well as occupy the other office pups.
The pup is even philanthropic, attending the Springfield Alzheimer’s walk and volunteering with his moms.
When asked what the biggest struggle of becoming a dog mom has been, Leibfarth said, “The biggest struggle of being his mom is actually nothing to do with the dog. It is communicating with two other people trying to figure out who is taking the dog and where we are meeting and if he has been fed. I think that is the biggest struggle so far.”
With that being said, and the knowledge that having a dog is a huge responsibility on its own let alone a pup who will someday help comfort a child who struggles with mental disabilities, one must wonder if these moms think the program is worth the time at all.
“I think it is a wonderful program,” Leibfarth said. “It’s a way to help someone in the future but you really don’t feel like you are going out of your way to do anything special. All you have to do is socialize him and to do that you just bring him everywhere with you. We are very fortunate as a campus to be a part of this program.”
