Wow, they're going to great lengths to keep their pets around. Smart little Yorkies!
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When a certain student, who asked to remain anonymous, found a kitten taped up in a box near a dumpster, she didn’t worry about the Stanford University policy forbidding pets on campus — she wondered who could abandon such a helpless creature.
“I fell in love with the animal,” she recalled, and explained that the cat still lives with her on campus, unbeknownst to Student Housing Services.
The Housing Policies and Services manual states, “the keeping of pets of any kind — including fish and caged animals — in or about University residences is prohibited to students.”
It continues with the warning that “residents who are found to have a pet will be charged $100 upon discovery and $100 per day until it is permanently removed.”
Not all University rules are obeyed by students, though, and the policy on pets is no exception.
One undergraduate who asked to remain anonymous has lived with her Yorkshire Terrier for two years.
“She is trained to be completely quiet whenever she is in my purse,” she said.
She takes the well-behaved dog with her to class every day, and even the most stoic members of academia have softened at the sight of the petite creature peering out from her bag.
“One professor saw her and loved her. She laughed her head off.”
Despite the chance of being caught, this owner has no doubts that keeping her pet on campus is worth the risk.
“Having a dog is a cure in so many ways,” she said. “It affects not just mood and basic feelings, but it creates a reality and sense of home in the midst of classes and work.”
Not all pet situations are as ideal. The difficult circumstances faced by one student have forced her to seek an alternate home for her feline.
“It is a young baby, and waking up at 5 a.m. doesn’t really work for me,” she said. “I love the kitten, though, and my care for him has motivated me to keep him as long as I have.”
The practice of keeping animals on campus is not a new occurrence. Many graduates recall their college pets with affection
“During the fall of 2001, Terra had sixty residents, including one hamster, two marsupials, three guinea pigs and two baby chickens,” said former Terra resident Lexi Suppes. “No one in Terra was ever caught for having pets on campus [that year], most likely because the pet owners comprised half of the house staff.”
Phil Sayegh attributes his successful two-year-long maintenance of two guinea pigs in Terra to the nature of a co-op.
“It was unlikely for anyone, [such as] a staff member or an RF, to complain or report us,” he said.
Imogen Hinds, manager of Undergraduate Housing Operations, affirmed that students with pets are not often discovered by the University.
“I would say this is a fairly infrequent occurrence,” she said.
This is not to say that it never happens, though. Dogs, cats, rodents, snakes and fish have all been discovered on campus before separating from their owners.
“Residents typically will remove the pet on their own,” Hinds said. “If the pet is abandoned, we would contact the appropriate service for removal of the animal.”
Whether they remain with their student owners until graduation or enjoy only a brief stay, pets can bring happiness and humor to the rigorous lives of Stanford students.
“When you’re up at 4 a.m. trying to write a paper and your chickens have just shat on your copy of ‘Being and Time,’ you can’t take yourself that seriously,” Suppes said.
http://daily.stanford.edu/tempo?page...y=0001_article