Treats delivered in doggy bags

By Carol Seiler

Dogs and cupcakes don’t normally go together.

But on Valentine’s Day, UK Wildcat Service Dogs and Naticakes dessert shop teamed up to deliver cupcakes for the holiday.

About $170 was raised, said Veronica Bill, the group’s director of fundraising, but that isn’t the grand total. Individual donations and walk-ins that came in to buy cupcakes at Naticakes still have not been accounted for.

The proceeds go to helping train and raise Wildcat Service Dog puppies.

Bill said the money is put into a fund that helps pay for food, treats, veterinary bills and anything else toward service dogs’ care.

Despite the rainy weather, dogs and their trainers loaded their minivan with gourmet decorated cupcakes to deliver to campus.

They delivered to places such as Keeneland Hall, Kirwan Tower, Greek housing, The Lex and Newton Crossing apartments.

“We had a good outreach and a good outcome,” Katie Skarvan, the group’s president, said.

Skarvan delivered gourmet decorated cupcakes along with Bill, Vice President Anna Mynchenberg and Mynchenberg’s service dog, Jagger.

The first UK campus delivery was to Keeneland Hall.

Josh Miller, a sophomore resident adviser there, said seeing the dogs help out was cool.

“And it’s good to see the service dogs in the halls because we don’t have a service dog that stays here at Keeneland,” he said.

Bill commented on Jagger’s behavior and reactions while on route delivering cupcakes.

“Jagger loves meeting new people,” she said. “He was just soaking up all the love he was getting today.”

Jagger is a boxer rescue, and boxers are not typical service dogs, so it was great to see people’s reactions, Bill said.

After delivering for part of the day, Mynchenberg said Jagger loved the attention.

Each package delivered had a pink paper heart that read “Happy Valentine’s Day. Thank you for your support or thank you for supporting UK Wildcat Service Dogs.”

Some pre-ordered packages had special cards attached, with a message written inside the card. Bill said one person asked for them to write in one of the cards,

“Love you so much mom and dad.”

Naticakes owner Nicole Ernst said 180 cupcakes were pre-ordered.

The most popular flavor was tuxedo, which is a chocolate cake with vanilla buttercream.

Mini cupcakes in amounts of six and 12 were ordered, and she said no jumbo-sized cupcakes or “Pupcakes” were ordered.

“Pupcakes” are edible cupcakes for dogs made with applesauce and carrots. Ernst said the “Pupcakes” will always be available for people to call in and request.

A percentage of the sale from every “Pupcake” order will go to the UK Wildcat Service Dogs organization.

Ernst plans on Naticakes’ relationship with the UK Wildcat Service Dogs team to be long-term.

Mynchenberg said she was pleased with the outcome.

“Naticakes really made an effort to help us out,” she said.