College is hard. “Adulting” is hard. Life is hard.
But you know what’s not hard?
Loving something that loves you back unconditionally.
Each year, more and more University of Portland students become pet owners. From cats and dogs to rats and bunnies, UP has become the home of a variety of pets who all improve their owners’ day-to-day lives.
Lucas Cummings, a sophomore marketing major, decided this was the right choice for him. Seven months ago he adopted a lab-pitbull-shepherd mix with bright blue eyes, a large white spot on his back and a mellow attitude. Cummings applied to keep his dog -- named Emmanuel, nicknamed Manny -- in his Christie dorm room as an emotional support animal.
The official policy of the University of Portland is that no animals are allowed to live in the dorms. However, UP administrators take special needs into consideration and allow a qualifying student to apply for either a service animal or an assistance animal.
UP cites Oregon Law to define assistance and service animals. “Any animal trained to assist a person with a physical impairment in one or more daily life activities” is considered a service animal, while assistance pets are, “animal[s]...recommended by a health care or mental health professional to provide emotional support to persons with disabilities who have a disability-related need for such support.”
In order for Manny to qualify as an emotional support animal, Lucas had to fill out multiple applications and acquire a myriad of signatures including his RA’s, his Hall Director’s, his doctor’s, and his roommates’. He then had to attend interviews with AES and ResLife officials and make sure Manny’s medical conditions were satisfactory.
Finally, near the end of last semester, Manny was able to move in. He was so popular on campus that Luke had trouble keeping track of him.
“I ended up having a whiteboard on my door, a sign up for 'who has my dog?’,” Lucas said.
For Lucas, living on campus with Manny had its difficulties, especially when he had to juggle a puppy, a longboard, a backpack and some food up three flights of stairs. But the sophomore says that it’s all been worth it.
This year, Lucas and Manny are living off-campus in a tiny home he built himself over the summer. These days, Lucas finds himself thinking about how long Manny is going to be in his life.
“It’s a trip to think that dogs live up to 15 years old and I’m 20,” Lucas said. “So, there’s a lot of big transitions from me going to college, to me building my house, to when I get married, when I have my kids. He’ll live through all of that. He’s a true best friend.”
Just this year, junior nursing major Emily Fazio has also become a pet owner--to a bunny named Harvey.
Having owned bunnies since she was a kid, Harvey and his nose twitch-- similar to Samantha’s in Bewitched-- provide a source of comfort and cuddles for Emily and her roommates in Tyson. She says that when she’s not there, she usually gets a text from one of her friends saying, “Hanging out with Harvey!”
"I thought it would be a really good way to cope with stress,” Fazio said. “It's really nice, he kind of just does his own thing and he's really low-maintenance."
Moving off-campus, the population of pets expands exponentially.
Just across the street from the soccer field, senior Maddy Green yearns for a pet pup. But since her house doesn’t allow for larger animals, she settles for smaller pets--like her feeder rat, Louise.
“I like having pets and since I can't have a big one I just like having something to take care of," Green said.
Maddy also recently started dog sitting. She says it’s how she get’s her dog fix in.
It’s said that it takes a village to raise a child. For senior Justin Aguilar and his roommates, it takes six 22-year-olds to raise a cat.
Kelly Schwyhart, Aguilar’s roommate, says that when Aguilar said he wanted to get a pet, they thought he was coming home with a dog. Instead, he showed up with a small gray-haired cat he bought off of Craigslist.
Aguilar picked him out of a crate containing his mother and several other kittens (they were having a battle royale over some food that had been tossed in--Lonso was the winner). Now, the boys are fond of him, despite Lonso’s habit of attacking glasses of water.
"It's just nice having something around at all times,” Schwyhat said. “It's fun to just have something to hang out with."
While each of these students have developed a unique relationship with their pet, one thing remains the same throughout all of them: the love each animal inspires and spreads. No matter how small or how hoppy, people glom together around something cute that needs to be taken care of.
College is four years of uncertainty, change, and growth, but having a pet through it all sure makes it easier.
