A business has plans for the Sansone Floral building on Ashland Avenue and it doesn’t involve cats. 

In the window of the pink building is a sign reading, “Coming Soon Floyd’s Feline Obedience,” along with a website address listed. If you visit the website, you’ll see a cat video, learn more about the building and that it’s actually Ad Astra Running that’s planning to open a store there later this year.

J. Jenkins, along with Grant Catloth, is Co-Owner of Ad Astra Running. Jenkins said the idea for the cat campaign came from his partner, Mike.

“We had heard that word was starting to leak out in St. Joe that we were coming, so we wanted to get out in front of that so we could introduce ourselves to the community,” Jenkins said. “But we thought that would be a fun way to let people know that Ad Astra was coming to St. Joe.”

Ad Astra has a location in Lawrence, Kansas, and Jenkins said they wanted to bring Ad Astra to St. Joseph because they have connections to the area and learned of a need.

“We know a lot of people in the area, either in St. Joe or right around it, that have been coming to Lawrence to see us to support us over here and get help finding the right pair of shoes and anything else they might need to get running,” Jenkins said. “So we knew people there and knew that they didn’t have the sort of store or necessarily the community focus that we have here in Lawrence so we wanted to bring that there.”

Jenkins said there’s no specific opening date yet. They’re currently in the stages of getting necessary work done on the building.

“When we found out that building was available, that really accelerated our plans to open in St. Joe,” Jenkins said. “We have been open in Lawrence just a year and a half and weren’t necessarily thinking, ‘Wow, it’s time to open a second store,’ but we’ve had so many people that have said, that would be the perfect location for a running store, it’s right on the running path and that’s where people who are already running, they’ll park on that street… So when we found out that building was available, it just seemed like an opportunity was presenting itself to us.”

Jenkins said with the history of the building and its well-known pink color, they are considering ways to maintain its legacy while they prepare the building for opening. Jenkins said they’re excited to bring Ad Astra Running to St. Joseph and get involved in the community.

“Our focus is all about community, serving the community and adding to it, developing the community, specifically the running community of course, but the entire community. If we relied just on runners as customers, we wouldn’t be open a month, because there’s at least as many people who come in that are just after comfortable shoes that fit,” Jenkins said. “I think sometimes people get thrown by the name Ad Astra Running, they’ll think, ‘Oh I’m not a runner,’ but we really want to be a store for everyone where they can come get help getting the shoes or the apparel, the accessories, whatever they need so they can be their best selves, they can get out and be active.”

Jenkins said the goal is to open sometime during the summer when people are more active and getting ready for cross country or training for fall races.

The rainy weather on Wednesday did not dampen spirits at a house blessing. 

St. Joseph Habitat for Humanity held its 64th house blessing for a home on Olive Street. 

Tommy and his two daughters, ages 9 and 6, cut the ribbon on their new home Wednesday morning. A short ceremony was held including a candle lighting, house dedication, prayer and gifts. 

Melissa Koch is the Executive Director for St. Joseph Habitat for Humanity. She said Tommy, who works as a caregiver at Choices, completed the required 400 hours of sweat equity, 10 hours of homeowner classes and made his one-and-a-half percent down payment on the house within three months. Koch said usually it takes people around six months to a year to complete everything.

“I didn’t know how long it was going to take,” Tommy said. “All I knew was that I needed to do hours and I needed to volunteer and that I had been accepted and I just started working. When I get set on something I want to do, I work as hard as I can so I got everything done I needed and got it all accomplished and got in here faster than anticipated or expected and it’s been a big blessing. It’s been a fun journey and I’ve learned a lot and it feels good to know that all these people are here for help and I want to get involved and pay it back too.”

Tommy said he feels overwhelmed, relieved and excited to have a place for his family.

“Now we have a place we know is always ours, we always are here,” Tommy said. “We’ve had some rare, strange occurrences that have happened and we don’t have to go through any of those obstacles anymore, we can focus more now on the future and on other things to get further instead of always wondering where we’re going to live and what we’re going to do.”

Koch said the 65th and 66th house blessings are planned before the end of June.

“All the hardship, figuring out how to pay for it, how to get it done, getting volunteers, all that comes together on a day like this, you just know what you’ve done, you didn’t put a Band-Aid on something, you really changed somebody’s life permanently and I don’t know that that could ever get old.”

Hanging up on a wall at the St. Joseph Animal Shelter are renderings drawn up by a local architect of a potential future shelter.

St. Joseph Animal Shelter Humane Educator Jenna Keyes said the Friends of the St. Joseph Animal Shelter have started on their fundraising campaign to buy land and build a new animal shelter in St. Joseph. 

“The Friends have been working very hard on the development stages, knowing what they want, developing fundraising plans, timelines, things like that,” Keyes said. “So now that all of that has already been established, we are in the promotion phase in trying to raise money to go toward the new shelter.”

Keyes said the current estimate is around $5 million in order to build an entirely new shelter in a new location up to industry standards as well as state and federal regulations.

“The reason why that’s so expensive is you’re looking at hospital type quality for these animals,” Keyes said. “Something that’s very sterile, healthy, and also an enriching environment that will benefit the animals during their stay, so that not only will they be physically active, their minds will be well stimulated, and make it a wonderful environment for the community whenever they come to visit as well.”

Keyes said they are also looking to build the new shelter in a different location that is in a more visible area. 

“I am very excited to see it become much larger, be a very inviting environment,” Keyes said. “There’s plans for lots of outdoor play yards for the dogs to get to go and play in… I’m excited for those group housing rooms for the cats as well. It will just be a lot better environment for the animals, for the staff and for the community too whenever they come and visit. What the Friends are trying to do is make a new animal shelter that the community can really be proud of and along with the city’s help we are definitely prepared to do that and working hard to try and raise all those funds.”

The Friends of the St. Joseph Animal Shelter is holding their 3rd Annual Run/Walk for the Paws 5K fundraiser. Participants are encouraged to bring their pets to the race which begins at 9 a.m. on Saturday, April 8th, in the parking lot across the street from Bode Ice Arena. 

For more information about the 5K click here and to make a donation to the shelter fundraising campaign, visit the gofundme page.

As Sayler and Hannah walk down the halls of Mosaic Life Care in St. Joseph, they greet doctors and patients with smiles and a wag of their tails.

Sayler is a Golden Retriever and Hannah is a black Havanese, a smaller dog who likes to be carried around by her handler and owner, Carol Porter.

Sayler’s handler, Dawn Younger, said she, Carol and Hannah have been making weekly visits to Mosaic since January after being certified through Pet Partners.

“We love it,” Younger said. “She knows when I get that vest out that this is where we’re going and she loves it.”

Both pets and their handlers can pass a course through Pet Partners to be certified to make visits. Younger said the training Sayler went through to be a therapy dog included a lot of repetition and basic obedience.

“Sit, down, they have to stay at the end of a long leash without you for a certain period of time,” Younger said. “They have to be comfortable around wheelchairs, patients that may not be able to walk well or shaky patients that may not pet them like a normal, healthy adult.”

As Sayler and Hannah make their rounds on the pediatric and oncology floors and make stops in the family surgery and Intensive Care Unit waiting rooms adults and children alike smile at the dogs, pet them and begin talking about missing their own pets.

“Especially the long-term people that are here,” Younger said. “Whether it’s visitors or patients themselves, it helps them to forget why they’re here, whether it’s someone is not doing well or an accident, it just takes them away from it, temporarily, and that’s what I enjoy.” 

Younger works the rest of the week in a medical office doing medical billing and said she wanted to get involved with pet therapy to spend more time with her dog. When Carol is not making visits with Hannah at Mosaic, she works as an insurance agent in St. Joseph. She said she and Hannah enjoy making people smile with their visits and one of her favorite memories so far was when they were leaving from a visit.

“There was a lady walking in and you could tell that she was not happy and Hannah ‘smiled’ at her and she stopped, reached over and petted her and smiled back and didn’t say a word but that smile on that lady just struck me as, that’s why we’re here.”

Anyone interested in learning more about Pet Partners can call the ambassador at Mosaic at (816) 271-8814 or click here.