Campus pets lift spirits, bring smiles to WCU
Amidst the stress of college, there are a few calming personalities students occasionally run into on their way to class: pets. For a single moment while they stop to pet them, all those worries evaporate.
There’s something about heroic public servants like Lando and music connoisseurs like Lily that put smiles on faces. There’s also something about happy-go-lucky fellas like Walter and rough ridin’ cowboys like Wirt that give students the laugh they’ve been needing for weeks.
Pets are more than animals. They’re friends, and these are the stories of just a few across Ƶapp.
Walkin’ Walter
On Fridays, Walter gets his steps in.
From 8:45 a.m. to the end of owner Heather Mina’s office hours, he’s getting all the walks, pets and attention he could ever want from students. It’s a dog’s paradise, but for anyone around Walter, there’s something about those big brown eyes and soft golden fur that brings joy to the masses.
“Literally the whole morning, I was smiling so much because everybody loved him, everybody was petting him, and they were smiling, too,” said junior health and physical education major Kayleigh Wilson. “It can really just make your day turn the whole other way.
“It makes you smile 'til your face hurts. That's what it does.”
Walter
Mina first brought her English cream golden retriever to class on a hike in the spring of 2023, and immediately, her students fell in love with him
“Students asked, 'Please bring Walter more,' and even on my course emails, (I ask) 'what should change about this class?' Over and over, 'more Walter,’” Mina said.
So, after getting approval from her director and making sure no one in her classes had dog allergies, Mina started bringing Walter on Fridays. Soon enough, her students came up with an idea: what if they could sign up to walk Walter?
Now, the teaching assistant professor creates a sign-up sheet for her students each semester to do just that with each session lasting 45 minutes. In between sessions, students bring Walter back to Mina’s classroom where her class will play with him before that class begins.
“It wakes them up. It gets them ready for class, so they're all laughing and everything, so by the time the walker comes in to take Walter, they're ready for class. I love it,” Mina said.
And when he gets back at the end of the day?
“He’s exhausted. It's so funny. When the last student comes in, he comes right here and is just sound asleep. Doesn't move,” Mina said. “He's just asleep, and then he sleeps the whole next day.”
But it’s still his favorite day of the week, and every week, he counts down the days.
“Friday, he is out there by my car because he rides in the back of my Highlander, he's out there by the back of (it),” Mina said. “Last Friday, I ended up doing a lab, so I couldn't bring him, so he's out there by the back of my Highlander. (I told him) 'You can't come with me today,' and he laid down and just looked at me.”
Although he loves the strolls and attention as much as the next canine, Walter is more than a dog. He’s a companion. Mina says students will often just sit down to talk with Walter because he holds eye contact and listens.
Her students will also write letters to Walter, thanking him for listening. He’s a very calm pup, too. Students don’t have to worry about him running off, and as they walk him, it’s obvious the apple doesn’t fall far from the tree.
“He's like Mina in a dog. Mina's so loving. Because of her, that's how Walter is. Like if Walter didn't have her and her family as his owner, I feel like he would not be the same dog,” Wilson said.
“(The first time I met Walter), he was very friendly. He wasn't messy or anything. He was very sweet. I don't know, he's a sweet fur baby. He really is.”
Meowdy, Wirt
Wirt may just be the coolest cat on campus.
He commands a presence anytime he roams around Cullowhee, oftentimes taking laps around the Catafount on a leash and welcoming any pets he gets along the way.
He can be the most rootin’ and tootin’ cowboy in the wild west, wearing his Stetson, or he can be a daring desperado with a bandana fixed around his collar. But at the end of the day, Wirt is students Carson Smith and Lizzie Seaman’s boy — and around these parts, he’s the cat’s meow
“We always get people who are like, 'Oh, it's a cat on a leash,' or like, 'How did you do that? I've always wanted to train my cat to be on a leash,'” said Smith, a sophomore forensic anthropology major from Charlotte. “They'll be like 'Can I go see Wirt? I want to walk Wirt.’”
Though Wirt is now a strolling campus sensation, his parents originally didn’t choose him, but he chose them. Smith and Seaman were looking for a cat their freshman year and came across a listing for a litter of kittens up for adoption on Facebook.
They went to pick an orange cat up — until a brown fuzzball with a striped bushy tail nuzzled up to Seaman. Since then, Wirt’s been joined at the hip of the couple, and as a pair of college kids, Seaman and Smith didn’t want Wirt to stay cooped up in a freshman dorm.
They wanted him to get out, but it wasn’t easy once they got him a leash.
“Originally, he just didn't want to move. You'd put it on and he'd just sit down,” Smith said. “Eventually when we lured him with a treat, he would get better at walking around and following us, and eventually we got it so that he could walk with us in the dorm without a leash and he would come with us somewhat.
“Sometimes he'd wander off, but most of the time, he'd go with us, and then eventually, we started taking him outside.”
As Wirt found his footing, the 3-year-old feline quickly became a well-known face around Black Rock and the rest of campus.
“Last year, people would knock on my door asking to see him. I wouldn't even know them half the time. They'd be like, ‘Can I see Wirt?’” said Seaman, a sophomore early childhood education major from Clover, South Carolina.
He’s a bit of a star within the Pride of the Mountains, too
“Everyone in the band knows him because they know me,” Seaman said. “They're like, 'Oh, how's Wirt?’ 'He's fine. I'm here, too, guys, but it's fine.’”
Though Wirt gets all the pets and attention a cat could ask for, the fame doesn’t faze him. He’s just a cat with a chill demeanor who gets the zoomies at night — and a hankering to prowl around his new frontier.
“He can't get along with other cats, which is really weird. He doesn't attack them, but they just kind of stand there and have a little standoff,” Smith said. “But with people, he's the greatest. He loves getting pets from everybody and just exploring everywhere.”
Lando on patrol
Lando isn’t much different than the dogs you see in the park. He loves to run around, love up on people and goof off as his tail wags a million times per second. The only difference between him and most canines is he wears a police vest.
Like his counterparts at the WCU Police Department, he’s here to protect and serve — with a nose that saves lives.
Lando is an explosive detection canine in WCUPD’s K9 division, patrolling campus with a top-of-the-line schnoz, four paws and a smile that brightens up anyone’s day.
“He's got a pretty unique personality,” said Conner Wilson, Lando’s handler. “Some days, I'm just like, 'Man, there is not much going on in that brain of yours,' but then other days, it's like, 'Wow, you are a really amazing animal who's just brilliant,'”
“But most of the time, his personality is more or less just a big goofball.”
Lando
The Belgian Malinois has been at WCU for about three years now. Before he arrived on campus, he was with Wilson, who Lando stays with, at the Jackson County Sheriff’s office for almost six years.
As an EDC, Lando’s work is often unseen. He scopes out areas across campus, sniffing for any explosives before folks start filing in for big university events.
Aside from being trained to detect the odor of explosives, Lando can also conduct article searches, where he can locate items with human scent, like a lost wallet or cell phone.
Lando knows when he’s off duty or what kind of duty he’s on based on the collar or harness Wilson puts on him. His nose is a big asset to WCU, but at the end of a hard day’s work, Lando’s still a dog.
“I think his biggest trait is that he's very sociable with everybody because he'll come up to just about everybody to get loved on. That's kind of been a big trademark for him,” Wilson said. “Even when he was young, he's just been very sociable with anybody and everybody.”
Lando gets a lot of his student interaction at events like Valley Ballyhoo or just walking around campus, but in Beth Woodard’s Legislative Aspect of Health Care class, he’s a bit of a recurring celebrity guest.
For the last three years, Woodard has invited Wilson and Lando to class when her students go outside to blow bubbles. Lando loves bubbles and people, and people love Lando and bubbles. As a result, it’s a good day for everyone.
“My course evaluations say, 'The best day of class was the day Lando came,'” Woodard said, “or they'll say when they're all getting a turn to pet him and everything, they're like 'This is the best day ever.'”
Lando is getting on the older side for EDC’s as he turns 10 in April. Wilson will ultimately make Lando’s retirement decision, however, with Lando in good health, he won’t be retiring just yet. When he does, Wilson is hoping Lando can get certified to be a therapy dog.
But until then, Lando is WCU’s certified good boy.
“He's still a good athlete, even for his age,” Wilson said. “Gosh, looking back on when he was just a year and a half old, he was very spunky. He's still spunky, but he has surprised me every day.”
Lily of the Valley
Residing in Cullowhee for almost four years, Lily knows campus like the back of her paw. Owners Ron and Rochelle Mau let the Great Pyrenees lead the way on their walks.
She takes them to Forsyth, where she knows she’ll get treats from the cleaning staff. She still takes them to where Innowhee once was, because she knew a dog biscuit and some water was waiting for her there.
But on the far south end of WCU, it isn’t the smell of canine goodies that brings her to her most favorite spot of all.
It’s the Pride of the Mountains.
“She'll sit there and watch the drum line. Most dogs, I think, would be scared and run away. She'll just sit down there and listen, and she just loves doing it,” Ron said. “It's part of her routine. If they're practicing, she likes to come check them out.”
Lily
Lily has been hooked on the marching band ever since she made her first visit to its
practice lot. The Maus probably couldn’t tell you what exactly she loves about it,
whether it’s the banging of drums, the whistles of the woodwinds or the clanging of
cymbals.
They just know it’s music to her ears — and when she hears them about a mile or two away from the Mau’s house in Cullowhee, she’ll let her parents know it’s time to go see them.
“Probably one of the first times after she’d been down here, she could hear them from our deck, and all of a sudden one night, she was just barking and going crazy and hopping around,” Ron said. “We just made it our little routine.”
Since then, Lily has become a superstar within the Pride of the Mountains, getting the sweet sound of music and all the love a dog could ask for from the near-500-member band.
She even holds a presence on social media, too, with 800-plus followers on her Instagram, @lily.of.the.valley.wnc.
“I get very excited when I see her,” said Anysah Meneau, a member of POTM’s media team. “She's always around so I get to see her all the time, so you'll watch me sprinting from across the field just to see her... She brings a huge smile to just about everybody's faces.”
Lily’s a popular dog across the rest of campus as well, often being stopped for pets on her walks. It even gets to the point where she becomes confused when students are out of town.
“She hates it when people are gone. She's different,” Ron said. “Christmas break, there will be times I guarantee if we start our walk, she will stop and look around her like, 'Where is everybody?'”
Like thousands of other students, Lily calls WCU home, but her heart lives in the melodious sound that echoes through the valley: the baddest band in the land, the Pride of the Mountains.
“She is probably our biggest fan,” said Meneau, a junior elementary education major from Fuquay-Varina. “Everybody, when they get a chance, we run over and say ‘Hi,’ to her. I think she's our No. 1 supporter. She is like one of the biggest moments of joy.”