ST. CLOUD -- Furry friends are helping St. Cloud State University students handle their stress as finals grow near.

St. Cloud State's Healthy Huskies club in partnership with the Tri-County Humane Society, Central MN Therapy Animal Association, the Mass Communications Department and the Counseling and Psychological Services Center are once again hosting the De-Stress with Pets events this week.

"The event actually really targets students that have pets but don't have them on campus."

John Atoyebi is a graduate student at SCSU and also one of the organizers for the De-Stress events. The first of the two events was held on Tuesday, De-Stress with Kittens. The second will be Thursday, it will feature dogs. Atoyebi says even though finals aren't happening quite yet, students are still overwhelmed with work.

"This period in time is really really stressful for a lot of students. I as well as a grad student am preparing papers, preparing for presentations even tomorrow. So this is a great avenue for me to just get out of that stressful head space and relax and just feel that tender nature of the kittens that are available here."

Thursday's De-Stress with Dogs event will be in the Atwood Gallery from 11:00 a.m. - 1:00 p.m. So far the event has been well received.

"Some research has shown that when you actually interact with animals it sort of calms you."

Students have less than two weeks before finals week kicks off. The last day of class is December 14.

More From AM 1240 WJON