{"id":15698,"date":"2018-04-01T09:00:30","date_gmt":"2018-04-01T16:00:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/?p=15698"},"modified":"2018-04-01T10:30:23","modified_gmt":"2018-04-01T17:30:23","slug":"april-1-exclusive-camosun-to-implement-therapy-tarantulas-and-scorpions-for-stressed-out-students","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/2018\/04\/01\/april-1-exclusive-camosun-to-implement-therapy-tarantulas-and-scorpions-for-stressed-out-students\/","title":{"rendered":"April 1 exclusive: Camosun to implement therapy tarantulas and scorpions for stressed-out students"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>With the stress of final exams looming, the tension on both Camosun\u2019s Lansdowne and Interurban campuses is palpable. Camosun students are wandering like time-bomb zombies, waiting to explode with the pressure of mounting assignments and tests; some students, apparently, have, literally, not slept for three years.<\/p>\n<p>Lucky for the tension-riddled masses, a solution has been presented to help combat the end-of-semester blues: exotic creature cuddles.<\/p>\n<p>In an exciting pilot project, Camosun plans to bring therapy animals to the Lansdowne campus, with the intention of expanding to Interurban next year. Studies have shown the stress-reducing benefits of therapy animals; spending time playing with a puppy or cuddling a kitty has been proven to lower heart rates and release endorphins\u2014something all students could use at this trying time of year.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_15612\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-15612\" style=\"width: 194px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/NEXUS-28-13-COVER-FOR-WEB.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-15612\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/NEXUS-28-13-COVER-FOR-WEB-194x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"194\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/NEXUS-28-13-COVER-FOR-WEB-194x300.jpg 194w, https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/NEXUS-28-13-COVER-FOR-WEB.jpg 452w, https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/NEXUS-28-13-COVER-FOR-WEB-300x465.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/03\/NEXUS-28-13-COVER-FOR-WEB-180x279.jpg 180w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 194px) 100vw, 194px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-15612\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">This story did not appear in the March 21, 2018 issue of <em>Nexus<\/em>, because it&#8217;s an April Fool&#8217;s joke.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The college had hoped to provide shelter dogs and cats to the students; unfortunately, it appears that with recent changes in regard to laws surrounding renting to pet owners, an influx in pet adoptions has left the shelters empty.<\/p>\n<p>Luckily, a generous student\u2014who wishes to remain anonymous\u2014has offered to donate his veritable petting zoo for his classmates to snuggle; henceforth, starting April 1, 2018, Terry the Tarantula, Silvio the Scorpion, Randy the Rat, and Perry the Python will be available at various locations on the Lansdowne campus for a quick hug.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnonymous\u201d hopes students will take advantage of his unconventional menagerie. \u201cCreepy-crawlies get such a bad rep,\u201d he says. \u201cBut they are so sweet! Silvio has only stung me a handful of times. And he\u2019s only a little poisonous. I\u2019ll make sure to send some antivenom with him!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnonymous\u201d is quick to point out the advantages of these creatures over traditional therapy pets. \u201cRats are super smart!\u201d he says. \u201cRandy helped me ace physics last semester!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When pressed to discuss how a rat can do physics, \u201cAnonymous\u201d said \u201che\u2019s really good with multiple choice! He leaves a little present beside the right answer! He\u2019s also small enough that you can sneak him into an exam in your pocket!\u201d<\/p>\n<p>While <em>Nexus<\/em> doesn\u2019t condone cheating, we do support checking out these amazing creatures! Just make sure you bring your scorpion antivenom.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>Update: after this story was finished, <\/em>Nexus<em> was informed that there was a \u201csituation\u201d while Perry the Python and Randy the Rat were being transported to campus together. RIP, Randy.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>With the stress of final exams looming, the tension on both Camosun\u2019s Lansdowne and Interurban campuses is palpable. Camosun students are wandering like time-bomb zombies, waiting to explode with the pressure of mounting assignments and tests; some students, apparently, have, literally, not slept for three years. Lucky for the tension-riddled masses, a solution has been [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15612,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-webexclusive"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15698"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15777,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15698\/revisions\/15777"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15612"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15698"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15698"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nexusnewspaper.com\/newsite\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15698"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}