Sarah Feit tries to take good care of her 12-week-old Cockapoo puppy, Oscar. She makes sure he gets his walks, uses the bathroom in the right place and she doesn’t stay away from her apartment for too long. And like any responsible parent, she’s monitoring his drinking habits as well.

‘I know people who have gotten their dogs really fucked up and nothing really happens, I’m sure a little beer won’t kill the dog,’ said Feit, a junior textile design major. ‘People are always trying to get my dog drunk and stoned, but I won’t let them because he is so young.’

But beyond the occasional urge to inebriate her pet, Feit won’t let anything happen to the relatively new addition to her house. The dog has been a constant joy in her life and the small problems that come with owning it, like being woken up early in the morning, are outweighed by the good times, Feit said.

From lowering blood pressure to decreasing feelings of loneliness and stress, it’s proven that pets, in the right context, are often a good cure for many of the mental problems the average college student suffers from, according to The Delta Society, the leading international resource for the human-animal bond.

Students with off-campus housing like Feit are able to keep larger animals like dogs and cats, but the rules set down by the Office of Residential Life against animals in dorms are very strict. Because of this some people have encountered problems. Caitlin Maloney, a sophomore illustration major, wanted to get a pet for her dorm room in Day Hall last year, and found Dwarf mice in a pet shop in North Syracuse which she thought would be perfect – even if the school’s rules forbid her from actually having them.

‘My brother kept a kitten in his dorm in Elmira College for a whole year, even after he was told he had to get rid of it, so I figured it wouldn’t be impossible for me to pull off,’ Maloney said.

Everything went well for a couple of weeks until her Resident Advisor learned of the mice’s existence and forced Maloney to get rid of them. The two rodents now live at her boyfriend’s home, but it was still sad to have them forced out of her room, Maloney said.

Some would-be-pet-owners decide on a smaller and less hands-on pet to keep them company. Megan Koskovich, a junior broadcast journalism and political science major, and the two girls she lives with, chose to be the host of a selection of fish and tree frogs, more for their ability to bring atmosphere to a room and less for the sentimental reasons. These types of animals are really good conversation starters and people just like to look or poke at them, Koskovich said.

‘We have one fish on an end table that you find yourself talking to sometimes,’ Koskovich said. ‘It’s incredibly odd but anything that moves is very interesting, so when you see them darting back and forth you can’t help but taunt them.’

Many people also choose to wait till they are in an apartment complex which allows pets before acquiring one, like Campus Hill Apartments, which uses the ability to keep animals as a selling point. Campus Hill expects a $400 deposit for dogs and a $200 deposit for cats for the year, but tenants are not likely to get most of this money back at the end of the lease, said Chris Busch of Campus Hill Apartments. This is due to the smell that usually remains in the carpet, or if the animal has had any ‘accidents’ during the rent period.

Dara Kaplan, a junior psychology major, grew up with dogs and couldn’t wait to get one of her own.

‘They are amazing pets; they become a part of your family, and are seriously like a best friend,’ Kaplan said.

Kaplan’s dog, a 4-month-old Jack Russell Terrier named Riley, is carefully watched over and tended to. When Kaplan is in class and can’t get home to take of him, everyone from her boyfriend to random guys in her apartment complex make sure everything is alright, Kaplan said. She even already has someone to take care of the dog when she goes on Spring Break, and plans to only search for an apartment which allows animals once she graduates so the two will never be apart.

Keeping a pet on campus does require some extra effort, but it’s not impossible to do for someone who loves animals; it’s all about how much work someone wants to put into its care. Pets like fish are simple to take care of and actually harder to kill than keep alive, said Koskovich. Larger animals like cats and dogs will just require the owner to put in more work, but they can still live a happy and healthy life, even on a college camps.

‘I definitely thought taking care of my dog in the environment I live in was going to be a lot harder, but my dog is really well behaved and happy and hasn’t taken that much time away from me,’ Feit said. ‘I can still go out and have fun.’

Published on February 1, 2005 at 12:00 pm