Students with Furry Responsibilities

Every time you walk through campus whether it’s to class, to the Carlton Union Building, or to your dorm room, it’s likely that you’ll see at least one dog. Thanks to Stetson becoming a pet friendly campus back in 2010, there are now three different housing locations on campus that can accommodate somebody with a pet. According to the ‘Animal-Friendly Housing Guide’ for the 2016–2017 academic year, an approved pet includes any of the following: a fish, a small caged animal like a rabbit or hedgehog, cats, and dogs that are under 50 pounds. Being a pet-friendly campus with housing accommodations, it has allowed for more students to bring their furry friends to school.

When you think about all the students who own pets both on and off campus, it may make you think about how much responsibility it is to not only have the animal, but also be able to to care for it, give time and attention to it, and be financially responsible for it. Finances can get lengthy, becoming a burden for any struggling college student, with monthly fees for housing as well as food, vet visits, and toys- it is almost as if they are children with fur. I had the opportunity to speak with two people to discuss what it’s like for them to be students with busy schedules and how they are able to balance the responsibility of owning a pet.

I leave my apartment and head out to climb into Brittney Ferko’s car, where she was eating her Burger King. A small white poodle lazily laid in her lap, watching Brittney unwrap and eat her whopper with a side of fries while we start to talk about her experiences of having Betty, the poodle, for the past year. Through the entire interview, Betty remained in Brittney’s lap, only moving a few times to either adjust her position, or to watch Brittney while she ate.

Brittney Ferko is a senior Delta Delta Delta member and she had the chance to adopt a 5 pound toy poodle this past summer. She was able to adopt Betty with the opportunity to register her as a therapy dog, a recommendation from her physician, for depression and anxiety that she had been diagnosed with over the summer.

Before Brittney found Betty, she looked adopting from a shelter, but the dogs were all too big for her to adopt. Instead, she ended up adopting a bunny named Lulu that, upon taking home, her sister fell in love with. While Brittney casually talked to her hairstylist about the situation, she recommended a smaller dog that she thought would be suited perfectly for the situation. Brittney was able to then convince her parents to let her get the poodle which would allow her sister to keep Lulu. She registered the poodle as a therapy dog and because she was rescued, Betty was already up-to-date on vaccinations and vet visits. The transition was a smooth one that allowed for Brittney and Betty to connect instantly.

“I spend more money on Betty than I do on myself”

Brittney had to pay a three hundred dollar down payment that would allow Betty to live in her current home. The landlord had originally stated that no pets were to live in the house, which made the payment slightly high, but was worth it to Brittney for her to be able to keep Betty close.

She explains how everything else that she is able to buy for Betty allows her to save money because it lasts for long periods of time due to her smaller size. “Bathing costs would be about $20 for the whole year because she’s small…I shave her myself, the clippers were like $25, those will last me forever.” Betty is a very calm and down to Earth dog, who spends most of her time sleeping and lounging around close to Brittney.

“She is the love and light of my day. I genuinely, when I say that she makes me so happy inside, I mean 100%.”

Brittney loves having Betty around and she never once thinks negatively about the costs of buying food and supplies. She is really happy to have her adorable poodle by her side through daily outings like to class, to the grocery store, or to the pharmacy.

While talking to Brittney about her life with Betty, she mentioned Cristina Moskewicz, who is a cat owner in the same sorority and a junior this year at Stetson this year.

I sat down at a table outside of the Welcome Center while I waited to meet with Cristina, but it was only a few minutes before she arrived with a warm hello. We make small talk while I try to organize myself and prepare for the interview. I started off asking the basic question of how long has she had her cat and she told me that she only had it since the beginning of junior year.

Before Cristina got her current cat, she had snuck one into the non-pet friendly dorms her sophomore year. She got caught when an unexpected room check happened while she was away from her dorm. Luckily she was only issued a warning, with no fine, to leave her cat at home the upcoming winter break. Sadly though the cat became ill and passed over that summer.

A few weeks after her previous cat had passed, Cristina and her friends found a kitten in a park near her home. After spending a month trying to find a home for it, she ended up taking it in herself and naming her Nova. She knew she was getting an apartment for junior year and would be able to keep it with her while she was at school.

Since Nova was found in the park, she had to take her through a series of tests, vaccinations, and spaying. “It added up real quick […]my parents helped me pay for it a ton, it’s mainly them. That’s why they hated me a little bit,” she said, before laughing about it. Around the same time, her parents had also adopted a cat, which doubled this cost. Cristina’s parents provided this help in the beginning which eased the transition so that all Cristina is really responsible for is food and kitty litter that she and her roommate share now that her cat is with her in DeLand.

I did ask if her having a cat prevented her from having a social life.

“It’s not like having a dog. A dog is different, like one of my friends has a puppy and that would take away from her social life […]but with cats I wouldn’t say it affects anything. The only thing that it would slightly affect is if I need to go buy food that day, I need to stop what I’m doing and go buy food because my cat needs to eat. Same thing with the litter.”

Apart from those responsibilities of getting supplies for her cat, Nova usually is okay being left alone in her apartment with her roommate’s cat.

One negative thing that the two cats have a tendency to do though is destroy the furniture. “Both of them scratch at the edge of the couch so now we have holes in our couch and I have to sell that couch by the end of the semester. That sucks. I’ll probably get like fifty bucks for it. I have holes in my curtains[…]if we leave paper towel or toilet paper rolls they will shred it up. If it’s on the counter it’s okay, but if it’s on the ground its shredded up.” The only other problem that she’s run into with owning cats is having so much cat hair everywhere. It doesn’t affect her, but she’s had friends who are allergic so they couldn’t come over to her apartment due to the allergies.

She doesn’t consider any of those issues being more than small consequences of owning a pet. Just like Brittney expressed about Betty, she genuinely loves Nova. “Coming home to something you own is the nicest, best thing. I literally will go home and just stare at my cat and be like I love you, you’re so cute. She always puts a smile on my face and it’s really nice to have a pet. I would say it’s worth the work that you have to put into any pet.”

The way that Cristina talks about her cat Nova is so positive. I wouldn’t doubt that every other student who owns a pet at Stetson would say anything differing from what she and Brittney expressed about owning a pet. It’s worth having a load of responsibilities for a living creature if it means you get to love and appreciate it every day.