Slobbered hands and warm hearts were found outside the Rhatigan Student Center on Monday afternoon, as the Wichita State Graduate Student Council paired with Beauties and beasts for Puppy Days to give dogs in need of a home some love.

Graduate Student Council events coordinator Emily Thon said she wanted to organize this event out of nostalgia for when she was a student, as well as give these dogs some people to love on them.

“What I wanted to provide was my happiest memories at Wichita State was the dog days that they would provide during finals week,” Thon said. “And so I kind of wanted to bring that back, especially with COVID and everybody missing their pets at home. So just giving everybody a chance to like, take and hang out with the dogs.”

Beauties and Beasts, a Wichita non-profit and volunteer-based organization that helps rescue dogs from the euthanization lists in and around Wichita, brought out dogs to WSU campus to give students a chance to give some pets and love to dogs pulled from the euth

anization list for minor issues. The dogs were controlled by volunteers during the afternoon and were eager for pets.

Thon said that GSC partnered with Beauties and Beasts and they brought dogs that were essentially in the 11th hour and are either recommended to be put down or just have a bit of behavioral issues that can be fixed by getting them out of the shelter.

The organization is 100% volunteer run and is completely non-profit, simply looking to help pull these dogs and give them a home and people to help work with them. Donations, volunteer work or adoption information can all be found on their website beautiesandbeasts.org.

After being outside the RSC during the morning and early afternoon, Thon said they saw many students come up and express how much they enjoyed the day and missed their own pets at home.

“It’s been really good, a lot of kids have been really excited that they get to come hang out with the dogs,” Thon said.

The GSC will be hosting this event again on Monday, March 21, April 18 and May 4. They are hoping to help graduate students become aware of the council and their presence on campus, stating that they are always looking for new members and would like to be a voice for graduate students, as well as show these dogs some love and Beauties and Beasts some awareness to what they do.

Editor’s note: This story was updated to correct a misspelling.