Multimedia Reporting (Adler-Noland)

Bailey is a one-year old Golden Retriever who just learned how to play dead. Today she bounds with her brother Dixon and ten other dogs her size through a snowy, fenced yard, stopping now and then to eat snow and bark at passers-by.

Inside, Inzo, a large, auburn Belgian Malamar who is training to be a police dog, sits in a chair behind the front desk with a bone in his mouth and peers over the counter.

These are just a few of the “regulars” at Home Sweet Home Dog Resort.

“Each dog has his own personality,” said Vicky Cox. “They’re like members of the family.”

Cox and her boyfriend Anthony Barnett have owned Home Sweet Home, Lawrence’s first doggy daycare, for nearly two years. They are one of the 29 licensed doggy daycares in Kansas (according to the Kansas Animal Health Department), and are among the many small business entrepreneurs across the country who have entered the fresh and fast-growing market for doggy daycares.

According to estimates from the American Pet Products Manufacturers Association, total pet industry spending has increased 5.8% in the past year, from $36.3 billion in 2005 to $38.4 billion in 2006. The total amount spent on pet services, which includes grooming, boarding and doggy daycares, increased from $2.5 billion to $2.7 billion in the same time period and is likely to show 8% growth in 2007.

Heather Staas, dog daycare division chairperson for the American Boarding Kennel Association, said that the industry is growing rapidly because people now have busier schedules.

“Daycare provides a support service to help them meet the needs of their dogs and allows them to enjoy the benefits of pet ownership without so much of the time constraint,” Staas said.

Barnett and Cox had been thinking of opening a doggy daycare in Lawrence when they moved here in 2003. Two years ago, they bought their current facility from another dog daycare that was already operating in the same building. Barnett said what appealed to them about the idea was that Lawrence was a pet-friendly town, and that the building had a pre-established clientele. He said he was surprised by the wide variety of clients that came in.

“I thought it would be a lot of the people with a lot of money, but it’s crossed across all economic boundaries. It has a lot to do with how they prioritize their dog,” he said.

Since they opened, Barnett said that they have grown by at least eight percent. They usually care for about 30 dogs a day, although they are filled to capacity with about 50 dogs for boarding. He said they have a waiting list for most travel holidays, including spring break.

“There was a day last summer when we had almost 70 dogs here and we had to get extra help,” he said.

To cater to their growing volume, they recently bought a lot near their building and hope to expand the facility soon to create more training space.

Barnett said that because they are the only large, licensed dog daycare in Lawrence, many local veterinarians and pet sitters refer their clients to them for daycare services. They also get their name out by doing collaborative, fund-raising events with the Humane Society, including a costume contest last Halloween and a parade for St. Patrick’s Day.

Cox said they are able to distinguish themselves from veterinarians, who offer kennel boarding, and pet sitters, who offer in-home care.

“This is the only place that dogs can run and play together instead of being cooped up in a cage or at home alone,” she said.

Their facility offers two indoor rooms with mattresses and TV’s for little dogs, one big room filled with large, “suite-style” kennels, and two big, fenced yards outside for large dogs. In addition to daycare, they offer overnight boarding, grooming and obedience training.

The main difficulty in maintaining the facility is keeping it clean from messes and mud, which are especially problematic when it snows or rains. Kennel cough and fighting are also risks, though doing behavior screening of dogs before they enter often prevents the latter.

Barnett said the reason that other dog daycares haven’t been opening yet in Lawrence is because there are costly barriers to entry. In addition to the expenses, all dog daycares in Kansas containing twenty or more animals require an Animal Facility Inspection and license from the state.

“It would be easier for a bigger company like PETCO or PetSmart to get that done than a small business,” Barnett said.

Despite these challenges, non-corporate dog daycares continue to open in the Kansas City area. Dr. Jim Swanson, a Kansas City, Kan. veterinarian, opened a Swanson’s Streamline Dog Park and Daycare in July in Shawnee after he saw many of his clients coming in to get the required vaccinations for their pets before taking them to doggy daycares.

Swanson said he was amazed at the amount of money people were willing to spend. In order to keep up with competition, he decided to make a large facility. On his 8-acre plot, he offers a nature trail, agility course, web-cams to observe the pets during the day, hydrotherapy training for rehabilitation, and even birthday parties with doggie cupcakes and decorations.

He said that starting off was a big investment and has been rough financially, but he expects steady growth over the year. Since he opened, he said, business has increased from about five dogs a day to nearly 25. He hopes to soon have between 40 and 80 a day.

Swanson said the doggy daycare business is a nice change of pace.

“People walk into a dog daycare because they want to. At the vet, they come because they have to,” Swanson said.

Vivian Malkus, a veterinary technician, moved to Shawnee from Baltimore a year ago with her husband and two dogs. She now takes her dogs to Swanson’s Streamline Dog Park and Daycare when she leaves for vacations.

“I think dog daycares are great for our dogs because they get more socialization. It makes me comfortable to know that someone is caring for them all day,” Malkus said.

When Bethany Premis, Kansas City junior, and her boyfriend, Jeremy Henderson, won a trip to Ensenada, Mexico, from radio station Mix 93.3 for spring break, the station mentioned that they would have to get passports to re-enter the country. Not knowing how long it would take, the couple waited two weeks to start the process.

“I had never been out of the country before,” Premis said. “I didn’t think it was a big deal until we went to the post office.”

After Premis waited in line for two hours, a Lawrence post office employee told her that she would have to expedite her passport, which is a $60 extra fee (in addition to the standard $94), in order to get it before her departure on March 29.
Premis and Henderson are among the millions of travelers headed to Mexico or the Caribbean who have had to expedite their passports since January in order to get them on time for spring break.

The standard process for applying for a passport normally takes about six weeks, but recently, estimates the process is taking up to 10 weeks. Expedited passports usually arrive in two weeks, but are now taking three to four weeks to process.

Since January, the State Department has been overwhelmed by new passport requests. The now says in bold red letters, “please expect delays,” and asks travelers to call only if they have urgent concerns or need their passport within the next ten days.

In order to help locals to get their passports on time, local Congress offices and post offices are busy helping locals to fill out their forms and to get in touch with the State Department to expedite their passports.

Judy Raney, Postmaster at the Lawrence Post Office on 6th and Vermont, said that the post office has been averaging about 28 passport requests a day, and many of the requests are from students going to Mexico or the Caribbean.

“It’s constantly busy,” she said. “We always have a line.”

Kevin Albrecht, a constituent services aide for Congressman Dennis Moore, said that he has recently had about 10 passport inquiries each day. This is remarkable, he said, because he typically gets only one or two such requests a month.

The biggest problem, he said, is that many people have applied for their passports without paying the expedite fee. When they realize their passport hasn’t arrived yet, he has to contact the passport agency on their behalf in order to get it expedited. He said that about 75% of the time, he is successful.

“It all depends if we’re able to get through to the passport center and if they’re able to locate the application, which is sitting in boxes of tens of thousands of other passport applications,” Albrecht said.

The main cause of the high demand and long delay for passports is the recent Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative, which now requires all US citizens traveling by air from Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean to present a passport in order to re-enter the country. Next year, it will also require passports for travel by land or sea from those regions.

The Homeland Security initiative, which the Departments of State and Homeland Security enacted on Jan. 23, is a response to the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations that they require all travelers to present legitimate documentation to re-enter the country.

The goal of the Homeland Security initiative, according to the Department of State Web site, is to tighten border security and to smooth the process of entry into the United States for all U.S. citizens and foreign visitors. This will create a standard process that allows the Department of Homeland Security to “quickly, reliably and accurately identify a traveler,” the Web site says.

Largely due to the initiative, passport applications for the fiscal year of 2007 are 44% higher than they were in the same period last year, according to a Congressional memo from the State Department. The State Department said it expects to issue more than 16 million passports this year, compared to 12 million in 2006.

In order to accommodate the surging demand for passports, the National Passport Center is now operating 24 hours a day and has hired 49 new passport adjudicators this month alone. In addition, next year, the State Department plans to build mega-processing center in Arkansas, which will be capable of producing ten million passports per year.

Though the rush may calm down after spring break, it will ramp up again as summer vacation season approaches, Albrecht said. But the biggest increase, he said, will be next year, when the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative will require passports for land and sea travel as well.

Premis received her passport in the mail last week, though the post office told her it would take longer to process. Despite the inconvenience, she said she understood why it is important.

“I can’t complain. It’s a safety precaution we have to take now.”

Costa Rican visiting professor’s past inspires him to help others

Carlos Palma says he never saw himself staying on the two acre coffee farm that his father worked every day.

As he sits in his office in Snow Hall, he reflects on how he used walk a mile without shoes every day to his elementary school in Palmares, Costa Rica, a town of about 20,000 people an hour outside the San José capital.

He remembers carrying pumpkins to sell to his classmates.

He recalls the times his mother and father sent him to collect blood from their cattle after they were butchered to make sausage.

“When one has lived poverty, one knows that only with work can he move forward,” he said in his native Spanish. “The only way you change your life is through education, persistence and responsibility.”

Palma, now a 55-year old businessman, lawyer, professor and director of the school of economics of Costa Rica who is visiting KU until June, said that receiving a need-based, all-expense paid scholarship from the University of Costa Rica was his first step towards a better life.

After graduating with master’s degrees in economics and law ten years later, his career spanned from politics to economics, business and finance. He became an independent economic advisor and stockbroker, started several import-export companies, purchased seven farms with nearly 1,000 hectares of land, became an active politician in the Social Christian Democratic Party and worked as vice president of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute.

“My goal was first to make money to be successful, and later to provide quality education for my children,” he said.

As he flips through the pages of his worn, dog-eared passport sprinkled with red, green, blue and black stamps, Mr. Palma mumbles the names of the countries he visited when he was vice president of the Costa Rican Tourism Institute.

“France, Italy, England, España, Nicaragua, Mexico, Panama, Argentina, Chile, Holland, Czech…Republica…”

Today, his seven children, who he often took with him on his travels, are as scattered across the world as the stamps on his passport. His oldest three sons are living in England, Italy and Germany, while his eldest daughter and three younger children are studying in Costa Rica.

“His principal interests I think are his family and country and he always has been very conscious of the lines that separate work from money,” said his son Carlos-Andres, one of the four children from Mr. Palma’s first wife who now studies chemical engineering in London.

Since Mr. Palma became the director of the school of economics at his university a year ago, one of his goals has been to help educate less-privileged children in rural areas of Costa Rica. He recently initiated a project with the Ministry of Education that will install Internet connections in the countryside. He also gives scholarships to high school students from his hometown of Palmares to study at the public university.

“Life is very short, and one has to leave positive footsteps that help others to improve their situation,” he said.

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Every day, Mr. Palma is here.

The sessions aren’t required. He’s not enrolled as an Applied English Center student like the others who attend.

“At first I was just wondering why an older man dressed in a suit was interested in a conversation group,” said Melissa Rogers, a conversation leader for the Applied English Center.

His formal attire distinguishes him from the casually clad students at the table. Today, his black hair is neatly combed and he wears a well-pressed black jacket, a burgundy shirt neatly rolled at the sleeves, and black, pleated pants.

Though he normally arrives on time, he is 15 minutes late. As he sits down, he smiles apologetically, his eyes gleaming behind small, gold-rimmed glasses. He gingerly sets his brown leather briefcase and miniature English dictionary on the table.

“I’m sorry…I’m late. Doctor appointment. High blood pressure,” he says, pointing to the pulse of his wrist.

In his native Spanish, Mr. Palma is prolific, almost poetic. Yet at these conversation groups, he struggles to describe his morning routine. His eyes scan the ceiling as he searches for vocabulary.

“I wake…I wake at 5 am,” he says, waiting for nods of understanding from others at the table. “And there were…there was…a loud storm.”

The students chat for the remainder of the hour about their daily schedules, campus events and popular slang. He leans in to listen, often repeating words or jotting them down on a yellow legal pad.

Mr. Palma said his principal goal in his five-month stay here, in addition to advancing the memorandum of understanding between the economics departments of KU and the University of Costa Rica, is to learn English.

Since he arrived, he has been sitting in on undergraduate Macroeconomics and Money and Banking lectures. Professor Paul Comolli, director of graduate studies for the department of economics, enrolled him in the classes to help him familiarize with basic economic terms in English.

Comolli says he meets with Mr. Palma about three times a week. Soon, they will begin to discuss the academic agreement between universities, which will eventually include the creation of joint graduate programs and the share of personnel, research, information and students.

“We haven’t had complicated conversations yet, but I think his conversational English has gotten better,” he said. “He’s been gently pushing to talk about this agreement.”

When he’s not working or studying, Mr. Palma has made an effort to meet Costa Rican students on campus. Piero Protti, a PhD student from San Jose, Costa Rica, has spent time with Mr. Palma and said that it seems he is still adjusting to the transportation and cultural differences, but that he enjoys the work he is doing here.

“I know what it fells like to be lonely in a different place than ‘home’ so I'm trying to organize my schedule to include some social time with him to help make his time here a bit cozier,” Protti said.

Draft should be complete by June, Wildgen says

KU has joined other universities across the nation in the effort of creating its own pandemic influenza response guide. The document, which provides a framework for decision-making in the event of a worldwide pandemic outbreak, should be complete by this June, Incident Manager Mike Wildgen said.

A task force headed by Wildgen and Student Health Services Administrator Carol Seager has been working on the draft of the plan since last March. The task force includes representatives from various response units, including the Athletics
department, Provost’s Office, Dining Services, Housing and International Programs.

“We don’t know when the next pandemic will occur,” Seager said in a presentation of the response guide last Wednesday. “We must embrace that this isn’t a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’”

According to Pandemicflu.gov, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, pandemic influenza is a global disease outbreak that occurs when a new influenza A virus emerges for which there is little or no natural immunity. The new, contagious virus develops after undergoing a process known as antigenic shift.

“These changes occur when proteins on the surface of the virus combine in new ways as a result of mutation or exchange of genetic material between multiple influenza viruses,” the website says.

The influenza then spreads quickly from person to person, causing severe sickness and deaths worldwide.

On the Pandemicflu.gov site, Dr. John Agwunobi, Assistant Secretary for Health in the US Department of Health and Human Services, said that it is nearly impossible to predict when a virus will mutate to become a pandemic virus.

The most current threat is avian flu, known as H5N1, which is a virus that has been transferred from bird to human but has not yet been documented to spread from human to human. To date, there have been 277 cases of avian flu worldwide, resulting in 167 deaths. No cases of avian flu have reached North or South America, however, and no cases have been reported to pass from human to human.

“A reality is that H5N1 could mutate tomorrow and become a pandemic virus, or it might never mutate and become a pandemic virus,” Agwonobi said on the website. “It's important that, we as a community, as a society, that we stay prepared.”

In the past century, there have been three worldwide pandemic outbreaks. US Army records indicate that the first outbreak of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 most likely occurred in Kansas.

Professor John Mielke, chair of the anthropology department, is a member of the speaker’s bureau and speaks about the history and evolution of human sickness. He said the Spanish flu most likely originated in China, but the first cluster of flu cases in the US began with a group of soldiers stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas. The virus spread quickly and lasted five weeks, eventually killing nearly 500,000 people in the United States.

Worldwide, Spanish flu is estimated to have affected nearly one-third of the world’s population (600 million people) and killed nearly 50 million, with the highest affected group being young adults, according to the Center for Disease Control.

The Asian flu of 1957 and Hong Kong Flu of 1968 both developed in China and were combinations of viruses that contained genes from an avian influenza virus and human influenza virus. The Asian flu caused 70,000 deaths worldwide, while the Hong Kong flu caused 34,000. The most affected groups of these pandemics were the elderly and small children.

During pandemic influenza outbreaks, medical systems often become overloaded and vaccination shortages become especially problematic, says the pandemic flu information of Douglas County’s official website. Local governments are charged with developing plans to control the outbreaks with limited funding and medical equipment.

When medical equipment is scarce, Seager said, an important method of keeping pandemic spread to a minimum is social distancing, which reduces the social contact of uninfected individuals. KU used this method in the Spanish flu of 1918 to keep healthy individuals from contracting the virus and spreading it. The university closed down for one month and students were forbidden to leave Lawrence.

Citing evidence that the Hong Kong flu was brought to the United States from human to human contact in Hong Kong, Seager said increased international travel at KU creates new threats.

In the 2006 Open Doors report, KU was as ranked as the eighth public university in the nation in the percentage of students who study abroad in the 2006. In 2005, nearly 1200 students studied abroad, and the report estimates more than a fourth of KU students will do so by the time they graduate.

“Influenza is highly communicable and world-wide travel at the rate seen today can't help but increase the possibility that such diseases can spread on a world-wide scale,” said biology professor Bill Picking.

In addition to providing $1.1 million to Kansas in 2006 for phase I of pandemic funding, the federal government has called upon state and county governments across the country to identify and “public and private sector partners” for effective planning and response. Counties are responsible for drawing up their own emergency preparedness plans.

If a pandemic should strike, the University will become one of Douglas County’s three official vaccination distribution sites. In the likely event of a vaccine shortage, the CDC must make priority lists for distribution of the limited injections.

“I say those words and my hair stands up on my arms,” Seager said. “I can’t imagine telling another human being that we couldn’t help them.”

KU will be among the first universities in the nation to have developed a pandemic response guide. Vanderbilt and North Carolina have also developed extensive response plans.

In order to prepare for pandemic spread, KU will follow the seven pandemic stages set by the World Health Organization. In each stage of the pandemic, the plan defines response outcomes and each department must create its own plan to carry out its duty throughout these stages. These response outcomes are healthcare delivery, infection control, learning continuity, operational communications, public information and vaccination distribution.

Once the draft of the plan is complete, Wildgen said his task force would create news releases and hold instructional sessions on campus to generate awareness of the plan.

“We want to get ahead of the crisis so that we’re as prepared as possible,” Wildgen said. “The organizational effort is the most difficult.”

Draft should be complete by June, Wildgen says

KU has joined other universities across the nation in the effort of creating its own pandemic influenza response guide. The document, which provides a framework for decision-making in the event of a worldwide pandemic outbreak, should be complete by this June, Incident Manager Mike Wildgen said.

A task force headed by Wildgen and Student Health Services Administrator Carol Seager has been working on the draft of the plan since last March. The task force includes representatives from various response units, including the Athletics department, Provost’s Office, Dining Services, Housing and International Programs.

“We don’t know when the next pandemic will occur,” Seager said in a presentation of the response guide last Wednesday. “We must embrace that this isn’t a matter of ‘if,’ but ‘when.’”

According to Pandemicflu.gov, a U.S. Department of Health and Human Services website, pandemic influenza is a global disease outbreak that occurs when a new influenza A virus emerges for which there is little or no natural immunity. The new, contagious virus develops after undergoing a process known as antigenic shift.

“These changes occur when proteins on the surface of the virus combine in new ways as a result of mutation or exchange of genetic material between multiple influenza viruses,” the website says.

The influenza then spreads quickly from person to person, causing severe sickness and deaths worldwide.

On the Pandemicflu.gov site, Dr. John Agwunobi, Assistant Secretary for Health in the US Department of Health and Human Services, said that it is nearly impossible to predict when a virus will mutate to become a pandemic virus.

The most current threat is avian flu, known as H5N1, which is a virus that has been transferred from bird to human but has not yet been documented to spread from human to human. To date, there have been 277 cases of avian flu worldwide, resulting in 167 deaths. No cases of avian flu have reached North or South America, however, and no cases have been reported to pass from human to human.

“A reality is that H5N1 could mutate tomorrow and become a pandemic virus, or it might never mutate and become a pandemic virus,” Agwonobi said on the website. “It's important that, we as a community, as a society, that we stay prepared.”

In the past century, there have been three worldwide pandemic outbreaks. US Army records indicate that the first outbreak of the Spanish flu pandemic of 1918 most likely occurred in Kansas.

Professor John Mielke, chair of the anthropology department, is a member of the speaker’s bureau and speaks about the history and evolution of human sickness. He said the Spanish flu most likely originated in China, but the first cluster of flu cases in the US began with a group of soldiers stationed in Fort Riley, Kansas. The virus spread quickly and lasted five weeks, eventually killing nearly 500,000 people in the United States.

Worldwide, Spanish flu is estimated to have affected nearly one-third of the world’s population (600 million people) and killed nearly 50 million, with the highest affected group being young adults, according to the Center for Disease Control.

The Asian flu of 1957 and Hong Kong Flu of 1968 both developed in China and were combinations of viruses that contained genes from an avian influenza virus and human influenza virus. The Asian flu caused 70,000 deaths worldwide, while the Hong Kong flu caused 34,000. The most affected groups of these pandemics were the elderly and small children.

During pandemic influenza outbreaks, medical systems often become overloaded and vaccination shortages become especially problematic, says the pandemic flu information of Douglas County’s official website. Local governments are charged with developing plans to control the outbreaks with limited funding and medical equipment.

When medical equipment is scarce, Seager said, an important method of keeping pandemic spread to a minimum is social distancing, which reduces the social contact of uninfected individuals. KU used this method in the Spanish flu of 1918 to keep healthy individuals from contracting the virus and spreading it. The university closed down for one month and students were forbidden to leave Lawrence.

Citing evidence that the Hong Kong flu was brought to the United States from human to human contact in Hong Kong, Seager said increased international travel at KU creates new threats.

In the 2006 Open Doors report, KU was as ranked as the eighth public university in the nation in the percentage of students who study abroad in the 2006. In 2005, nearly 1200 students studied abroad, and the report estimates more than a fourth of KU students will do so by the time they graduate.

“Influenza is highly communicable and world-wide travel at the rate seen today can't help but increase the possibility that such diseases can spread on a world-wide scale,” said biology professor Bill Picking.

In addition to providing $1.1 million to Kansas in 2006 for phase I of pandemic funding, the federal government has called upon state and county governments across the country to identify and “public and private sector partners” for effective planning and response. Counties are responsible for drawing up their own emergency preparedness plans.

If a pandemic should strike, the University will become one of Douglas County’s three official vaccination distribution sites. In the likely event of a vaccine shortage, the CDC must make priority lists for distribution of the limited injections.

“I say those words and my hair stands up on my arms,” Seager said. “I can’t imagine telling another human being that we couldn’t help them.”

KU will be among the first universities in the nation to have developed a pandemic response guide. Vanderbilt and North Carolina have also developed extensive response plans.

In order to prepare for pandemic spread, KU will follow the seven pandemic stages set by the World Health Organization. In each stage of the pandemic, the plan defines response outcomes and each department must create its own plan to carry out its duty throughout these stages. These response outcomes are healthcare delivery, infection control, learning continuity, operational communications, public information and vaccination distribution.

Once the draft of the plan is complete, Wildgen said his task force would create news releases and hold instructional sessions on campus to generate awareness of the plan.

“We want to get ahead of the crisis so that we’re as prepared as possible,” Wildgen said. “The organizational effort is the most difficult.”