From the Washington College newspaper:
… [F]ish are not the only animals living on our campus. Junior Robbie Dinneen keeps two sugar gliders (a small marsupial) in his Talbot room named Jager and Maui. One is male and the other is female. Interestingly enough, these two have yet to mate. Dinneen said it’s really easy to take care of them. The most important thing is to give them a lot of attention because they can get depressed pretty quickly. He has never had any problems with Public Safety, and the majority of people really like the sugar gliders.
Another junior, who would like to remain anonymous, has a soft side for keeping rats. Last year he had two rats in his dorm on campus and this year he houses a whopping seven rats in his apartment off-campus. The seven rats are all girls named Peaches, Pumpkin, Bridget, Xing Xing, Mimi, Luffy and Panya.
Concerning difficulties with caring for them, all he said was, “It’s a bit tough to find supplies for them, especially now that the Pet Store is closed. Still, I try to load up on bedding and stuff whenever I go home.”
Luckily, he never had any problem with Public Safety. He did want us to know, “Rats aren’t as scary as movies and television make them out to be. When they’re healthy and happy, they’re actually more like little dogs than rodents. They make great pets!”
One senior girl agrees, who wishes to remain anonymous, but has joint custody with another girl on campus of two boy rats named Mator and Achilles. She said she opted to get boy rats because they are more social and friendlier.
“I think that having pets is a great thing,” she said. The problem is, she said, they can smell and it’s sometimes difficult to pay for food and bedding. But despite that, she said, “I think the no pets policy on campus is kind of ridiculous.”
Last year, I kept two pet rats in my on-campus room. I also agree that rats make fantastic pets. My roommate and I shared them, though she mostly took care of them. We never had any issues with Public Safety because we made sure not many people knew about them. Our RA knew we had them and assured us that as long as we kept them out of trouble she wouldn’t make us get rid of them.
My first year here at Washington College, I lived in Queen Anne dorm and roomed with a sophomore. I waited three days for her to arrive, and when she finally got here, the first thing she introduced me to was her pet hedgehog. Unfortunately, after a while word spread and Public Safety made her take the hedgehog home…
April 13th, 2009 at 6:37AM
I part-timed a lot towards the end of graduate school at Agnes Scott College. Their rule was that if an animal could fit in the palm of the owners hand, the animal could stay. This meant a lot of mice.
April 13th, 2009 at 7:05AM
I think that with the possible exception of a single small fish, all pets are banned on this campus. Rats would definitely be a no-go: the administration would fear the competition.