The Official Newspaper of the Diocese of Little Rock
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When Catholic school students start lining the halls for another school year, there will be some extra-special students around them.
There’s Ezekiel, “Zeke” for short, who is never afraid to comfort a fellow student. There’s the always hyper Paulie Girl, who can calm down in an instant when she’s told to “go pray.” There’s Sadie, dubbed an “angel,” who loves nothing more than attention and treats. There’s Ollie, who is a bit stocky and has a propensity to sleep in class, but will proudly represent the St. Joseph Bulldogs in Conway this year. And who could forget Peanuts and Pickles — the tiny mohawked brothers who sat proudly for their yearbook photos last year.
These are the “students” that garner what could be the most love and respect from their peers. They are the classroom pets, who do more than just make people smile with their furry faces or licks in the hallway, they make an impact on the human students they encounter, according to their owners/educators.
“St. Francis felt that all of nature gave praise to God,” said Brother Richard Sanker, who owns Zeke at Catholic High School in Little Rock. “Having an animal like that is simply just a reflection of that creation. They bring about a true appreciation for all of God’s creatures.”
Zeke, a 10-year-old German Shepherd, is one of several dogs who have trotted down the halls of Catholic High, becoming part of the school’s tradition, “A boy and his dog; it’s what Catholic High is all about,” Brother Richard said.
In his younger days, Zeke, who lives at the school with Brother Richard, was a feisty puppy.
“I saw him running down the hall with a slice of pizza once,” Brother Richard said.
For Brother Richard, the real reward of having Zeke around the students at the all-boys school is watching him comfort students.
“I remember a boy walked into school and he just looked so lonely,” Brother Richard said. “A smile came across his face when he went to pet Zeke … Obviously, that’s his job — to bring a little joy and comfort to those students who might being going through a difficult time.”
At Mount St. Mary Academy, the all-girls school in Little Rock, Sadie, a five-year-old Goldendoodle, is the one bringing the smiles to students’ faces.
“She has met Zeke. She was a puppy though and he was (an) old man,” laughed Sister Joan Pfauser, RSM, who co-owns Sadie with Sister Lisa Griffith, RSM. “Sadie goes to all the games with us, so they have met at a game … she’s a furry angel.”
While Sadie doesn’t walk through the classrooms like Zeke, she does make sure to make the “treat rounds” before the first bell rings.
“When they go to school in the morning, she’ll greet every girl. Some kids carry treats in their backpacks for her and believe me she knows who they are,” Sister Joan said. “She’ll walk up to a girl and just flop over and they’ll rub her belly. She’s loved.”
Sister Joan, the school’s guidance counselor, said Sadie and a pet in general can have a profound impact on students who are struggling.
“If there’s a crying girl in my office, she’ll either put her paws on their knees or climb in their lap,” Sister Joan said. “I love it because it’s not only unconditional love; it’s no expectations from them. She doesn’t expect them to have A’s or expect them to be pretty, nothing that society expects. She just walks up and licks your knee.”
At St. Mary School in Paragould, Father Mike Sinkler’s registered therapy dog, Paulie Girl, is a great living example of listening to God’s commands.
“I can stir her up, get her wilder and just tell her to be still and she’ll stop immediately. So it’s a lesson to the children that they can go from active to quiet; if Paulie Girl can do it they can do it,” Father Sinkler said. “We also talk about why she is obedient, they get shown where obedience comes from — it comes from trust and listening to the Master’s life.”
All Father Sinkler has to do is tell Paulie Girl to “go pray” and she’ll go sit in a pew for the rest of Mass.
“She knows that command because that’s the first thing we do every morning because we go to the chair and pray,” Father Sinkler said. “It works; rather than just telling her to lay down, it’s cuter to tell her to go pray.”
Father Sinkler, who enjoyed just pet sitting, was surprised when his parishioners at St. Vincent de Paul Church in Rogers, won him a Pomeranian puppy at a silent auction.
“She was named St. Paulie Girl after the beer,” and Vincent de Paul, Father Sinkler said. “She was not a saint at the time, so we dropped the saint so she became Paulie Girl.”
An active member of St. Mary, Paulie Girl has “gone to more retreats than most Catholics,” visits the nursing homes and even helps “write” for the church bulletin, Father Sinkler said.
“I write for the bulletin quite a bit and put it in her words,” particularly when he’s going out of town. “She’s going to write about relaxing during the summer, ‘I’ve learned a little about relaxing during summer; it’s time to be still and quiet.’ If I wrote it, eh, but because it’s Paulie Girl and her pictures next to it, they want to read it.”
Despite a variety of pets at Christ the King in Fort Smith, ranging from fish to turtles, guinea pig brothers Peanuts and Pickles are the true stars of the school.
Marilyn Self, a first-grade teacher, got the two guinea pigs from her daughter and grandchildren in Little Rock. She keeps Peanuts while Pickles stays in fellow teacher Karri Karrant’s kindergarten class.
Self said Pickles and Peanuts stay overnight in the other classroom together, which makes for a fun morning routine for her students.
“We have kind of a routine where I get to school in the morning … the kids were going ‘Are you going to get Peanuts?’ I have a little blanket kind of thing I wrap him in. They’d follow me into the classroom and we’d get Peanuts,” Self said. “When it gets close to 3 p.m., Peanuts will start squeaking and talking because he knows it’s almost time to go see his brother.”
During the day, the kids enjoy sitting inside or in the outdoor classroom with Peanuts, sharing snack time and reading to him.
“He loves to eat a lot. His favorite is green peppers and carrots and lettuce,” Self said. “We feed him grapes and apples and depending on what the kids have in their lunches, fruit. With our snack time, the kids would go around and find dandelions … and they would feed him his snack and sit by the pen and eat their snacks.”
Besides learning compassion for living creatures, the students have gotten a lesson in basic care of small animals.
“I think the main thing is they make a connection with animals,” Self said. “A lot of kids have pets, but there are some that don’t. They learn how to treat them carefully and kindly. Even the boys learn the nurturing skills, and listening to him and the kind of responses he makes.”
At St. Joseph School in Conway, Kathleen Gueringer, who teaches eighth-, 10th- and 12th- grade English, jumped at the chance to make her five-year-old bulldog Ollie the new mascot.
“This past year in the spring we didn’t have anyone sign up for cheerleading or wearing the mascot costume,” Gueringer said. “(The principal) said, ‘He needs to just take it over because we don’t have one.’”
It was a natural step for Gueringer, a proud third-generation graduate of St. Joseph.
“It shows them that somebody who went to this school they loved being a bulldog so much they even own a bulldog,” Gueringer said. “He was always a St. Joseph bulldog. For them to have a living embodiment of a bulldog, it gets them excited too.”
Taking on the role of mascot will be an easier task for Ollie rather than bringing him into the classroom like she has at past schools.
“He’s distracting. One, people try to pet him during class. Then, he’ll be snoring in the middle of me teaching or emit bodily functions,” Gueringer said with a laugh, adding that at another school, her class was “taking a test and he snored the whole time.”
Since being named mascot, Ollie’s routine hasn’t changed much and the fame hasn’t gone to his head, at least yet, Gueringer said.
“Sixteen hours of sleeping, rolling around in the grass, if you can believe it, he loves eating apples and canned green beans,” Gueringer said.
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