When we see something out of place in the undergraduate community, like an individual under the age of 18 or over the age of 22, it can be a shock. We're all so self-absorbed or freaked out about graduating that we forget there is life outside of our isolated college existences -- animal life, in fact. And no, the invasion of squirrels running around Grounds doesn't count. Even the creepy ones on the Lawn that approach you are probably rabid or at least hungry, so don't be fooled by their brazen attempts at human contact. They are vermin.
I'm talking about seeing pets running around Grounds. This never fails to make me smile.
Separated from our pets at home, we are faced with the reality that our beloved animal friends have forgotten us and love our parents more. This makes us want to pet any warm-blooded creature with four legs we encounter, besides the aforementioned squirrels.
I don't know about you, but every time I see a dog walking around Grounds I must suppress the instinct to yell, "Aw! A puppy!" and freak out its owner by chasing it down to cuddle with it.
Though there are usually dogs frolicking on the Lawn every day, some venture inside the classroom for some book-learning of their own. In one of my classes last week, the guest professor brought his yellow lab to class and tied her leash to the table in the front of the room.
About halfway through his lecture, he let her loose and she roamed around the lecture hall, her tail wagging and her metal tags jingling audibly from across the room. Almost every student she passed reached out a hand to pet her as she lazily circled the lecture hall at least three times, sometimes even trotting through the aisles over backpacks and under legs with no ostensible purpose or agenda. Not that I wasn't paying attention to the compelling lecture, but there's something undeniably smile-inducing about a dog's complete disregard for lecture etiquette in favor of smelling as many hands as she can.
A former professor of mine is known to bring his dog to his office hours. Once when we were discussing my questions for leading a future class discussion, the dog stared up at me from its position belly-up on the floor, as if considering my theories on Mark Twain's short fiction as thoughtfully as my professor. Under the critical eye of my canine audience I was all the more inspired to impress.
Several years ago I had a teaching assistant who would bring his dog to class every so often, and while he led discussion about "The Faerie Queen," she started eating the chalk from out of his hand. Talk about stealing the show from my least favorite pre-17th century literary work.
In grade school, animals in the classroom did not fare so well. I always wondered why the teachers even bothered. Hamsters mysteriously disappeared over night. Guinea pigs contracted scurvy. Fish became lodged helplessly in the water filter before we even recited the Pledge of Allegiance. And I still wonder, what life lessons were we supposed to glean from the trauma of watching in horror as a female praying mantis devours her former lover? What a graphic display of life's cruelties at the age of six. Since my major has absolutely nothing to do with science or dissection, my college experience with animals has been of a more friendly nature.
Whenever I walk by the dog outside Brooks Hall that can catch four Frisbees in his mouth at a time, I am reminded of the fun and simplicity of running around outdoors, as opposed to my current existence holed up in Alderman -- not that I think I can catch Frisbees in my mouth, or at least not more than one.
And when you're doing homework on the Lawn with friends and three of the biggest and fluffiest dogs imaginable rush at you gleefully, they remind you there is something so great about a dog's immediate love and trust of random strangers, which I think we forget about in college with no animal friends to call our own. Granted, it may help that these strangers have Take It Away, but still.
Maybe I'm sensitive to how fun dogs are because my family could never have one because my brother has allergies. I still think that gasping for breath and breaking out in hives whenever there was dog hair in a room was not a good enough reason for not having a puppy. Benadryl is available over the counter, after all.
Encountering pets in the setting of our University education is a welcome diversion from our stresses, and since it's finally warmer out, I hope we can mooch off of other peoples' pets in the near future.
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