Michael Branigan holds his puppy Squirrel. Courtesy | Nate Privitt

When senior Nate Privitt’s housemate, senior Michael Branigan, took a routine trip to Walmart in August, neither one thought Branigan would come home with a puppy.

“There was a van there that had a cardboard sign that said ‘puppies’ on it, and Michael was like, ‘I’ve gotta go look at puppies,’” Privitt said.  “Michael called me, and he was like, ‘There’s a cute dog here. Do you want to get it?’”

From dogs to cats to hamsters, many students on campus double as pet owners.  For many, the decision to get a pet was unexpected, but some find it more difficult than others to make time to care for their pets as busy students, however, they have found owning pets to be a rewarding part of their college experience. For some, like Privitt, it had the added benefit of learning useful skills transferable to adulthood.

Branigan returned from the store with the then-3-month-old beagle mix, whom they named Squirrel.

“It was a spur of the moment for Michael, and it was a spur of the moment thing for me,” Privitt said. “I was just like, ‘Dang, that’s a really cute dog.’”

Now, six months later, Privitt has navigated the early stages of puppyhood and has developed a routine of regular walks and feeds, which Privitt said he balances with his two housemates.

“We have a little whiteboard that we have her schedule on. ‘Has she been let out for the afternoon? Has she gone potty? Has she been taken on a walk?’ So we have a little system to keep everything,” Privitt said.

While adding a dog to his senior year was not part of his plan, Privitt said Squirrel has taught both him and his housemates how to balance responsibilities on top of school work.

“If I need to hunker down and write a paper and I need to go to the library for that, I feel bad leaving her at the house, especially if I know nobody else is there,” Privitt said. “Sometimes that’s just a necessary thing, but most days it’s OK. Most days I can just go back, I’ll chill on the couch, and if she’s bored, I’ll absentmindedly throw a toy, she’ll bring it back to me, I’ll throw it again. I’ll do that for an hour while I’m writing or researching.”

In the time that Privitt and his housemates are in classes, he said Squirrel stays at home, but her time alone is never any more than a few hours each day.

“Socializing a dog in college is the easiest thing,” Privitt said. “Most days, we’ll have a friend or two over, so she’s constantly meeting new people. It’s so easy to familiarize her with different levels of volume, or different levels of energy. There’s a lot of very nice things that come from having a dog around.”

Senior Tiare Nicholas-Bublick rescued both of the pets she owns. Her cat Pumpkin, who she’s had since her sophomore year and her dog Jellybean — a yorkie, terrier and pug mix — she adopted last April, both experience all aspects of college life, from spending time in the student union to going to sporting events, and even occasionally attending classes.

“When I took Jellybean to class with me, there was a chair right next to me that was empty, so I put her there, and she just sat there like a student and did not make a peep,” she said.

Having a dog helps her spend time outside, which Nicholas-Bublick said is otherwise difficult for her during the winter months.

“It really makes me happy when I see them happy,” she said, “Especially Jellybean when she’s walking and is just so happy.”

While Nicholas-Bublick said she loves being both a “single mom” to her animals and a full-time student, owning animals is not something every student should consider.

“You have to make sure that you’re able to care for an animal if you bring an animal in,” Nicholas-Bublick said. “If they have to go to the vet, you have to make sure you have at least some money. They need work, and it is a lot of love and snuggles, but they also need care and attention.”

Senior Roni Crnkovich brought her hamster, Tilly, to school this year after getting Tilly from a friend over the summer.  Crnkovich said she is a seasoned hamster owner, with Tilly being her second hamster and a replacement for having never owned a dog.

Crnkovich said Tilly saved her from a traffic ticket while driving home on the Ohio Turnpike in December.

“I got three hours of sleep the night before, so I probably shouldn’t have been driving that day,” Crnkovich said. “I was speeding, and I got pulled over on the Ohio Turnpike, and the cops, were looking at my car, and it’s all a mess — I had thrown my luggage in and I was in my Christmas pajama pants — and then one of the cops looks in the back seat and he says, ‘Oh, your hamster escaped.’ And I was like, ‘Haha, what?’”

Crnkovich said Tilly had chewed through the shoebox she was stored in and was crawling all over Crnkovich’s luggage in the backseat when the police officer noticed.

“I was mortified,” Crnkovich said. “Then the officer goes, ‘Can I hold it?’ And I was like, ‘Yeah.’ So I rolled down the back window, and he took her.”

Crnkovich said the officers then conversed with her about her travel plans, and eventually ended up asking questions about Tilly.

“Then they went back to their car and they decided, and they came back to me and they were like, ‘We’re not gonna give you a ticket,’” Crnkovich said. “I think she distracted them. It was so perfect.”

But Crnkovich said there have been other times when having a hamster hasn’t been as convenient. Following a President’s Ball afterparty hosted at her off-campus house, Crnkovich said she noticed Tilly wasn’t in her cage. She concluded that some party-goers had messed with Tilly during the party and neglected to lock the cage.

“​​For two full days, I was praying and searching for her,” Crnkovich said. “I looked in every nook and cranny and I was thinking, ‘I’m never gonna see her again.’

Two days later, Crnkovich said a housemate walked into the bathroom at 1 a.m. to find Tilly sitting in the middle of the room.

“I was overjoyed to see her,” Crnkovich said. “Now, at night, when I’m falling asleep, I hear her scurrying around, which I used to hate, but now I think it’s comforting.”

Senior Sam Wallace purchased a hamster in the fall after taking a trip to Jackson to get a Wi-Fi router for his off-campus house.

“Next to the Xfinity in Jackson was a PetSmart,” Wallace said. “I was there with my housemate and we were like, ‘Let’s just go see what’s there.’ So we found ourselves in the small pet section, and we talked for a while about getting a big rat to put it in our house somewhere —  in someone’s bed, or something to goof around.”

But then, Wallace said, the conversation shifted from getting a rat for a prank to getting a hamster for a pet.

“I was dead serious,” Wallace said. “I was like ‘I would get a hamster today.’”

Without much further consideration, Wallace and his housemate decided to get the hamster and named him after a friend who is notorious for his spontaneity.

“We figured out the Wi-Fi, came back and bought a hamster,” Wallace said. “We named him Paul.”

While Paul’s day-to-day life is relatively boring, Wallace said he will occasionally bring cucumbers or carrots home from the dining hall for Paul to snack on. He also said he and his housemates will take Paul out of his crate some weeknights to let him roll around in his hamster ball or pet him.

“We will go downstairs, put out a movie, or do homework, or whatever and let him crawl around on the couch and hang out with us,” Wallace said. “He would always try to chew through the couch cushions to store food in there, so we had to stop him from doing that. But all of our housemates love him.”

Wallace said he and his Delta Tau Delta fraternity brothers had a cat his sophomore year, but he had never had a hamster before.

“I love cats and dogs, but I love that hamster,” Wallace said. “I had never interacted with one before, so it was all new, but I love it now. I would continue getting hamsters, for sure.”

Both Wallace and Crnkovich said hamsters provide a low-maintenance and low-cost option for students who want a pet but don’t have the time or money to devote to a bigger animal.

“You forget about it, and that’s not a problem,” Crnkovich said. “If you have food and water and a cage for them, then they’re pretty much set. But then when you do remember you have a hamster, you’re like, ‘Oh, my gosh, this is the best thing ever.’”

For junior Emily Garnes, having an animal on campus is more than merely having a pet. Garnes lives in Benzing Residence with Sapphire, a 6-year-old shepherd mix who serves as her emotional support animal.

Garnes said Sapphire’s role as an ESA is similar to the work of a therapy dog, but differs in that therapy dogs are trained to perform a specific task like detecting when their owner has low blood sugar or has come in contact with an allergen. Garnes said ESAs do their job by simply being there for their owner and having a calming presence.

“She attended appointments with me, and the doctors saw that she was good — she’s very well behaved — and they saw how she helps me out,” Garnes said. “They wrote a recommendation letter, and we got it sent to an ESA certification service and got her verified.”

Garnes said Sapphire never had formal training for her role as an ESA, but her laid-back personality makes her a perfect fit for the role.

“Lots of dogs could probably not do her job, because they need a specific temperament,” Garnes said. “She’s very compassionate, and she has a very high emotional IQ. She can tell how I’m feeling or if I’m really sick, she’ll sit with me and comfort me.”

A day in Garnes and Sapphire’s lives includes waking up early for a walk and breakfast before Garnes goes to class. Garnes said living on campus makes caring for Sapphire easy because she is able to stop by the dorm between classes to check in on her. The duo usually walk three times each day, Garnes said.

“It’s not that hard, because the walks are good study breaks,” Garnes said.

It’s common to see Sapphire accompanying Garnes at campus events like Concert on the Quad or Benzing’s Fall Fest, and Garnes said Sapphire loves the attention students give her when she’s there.

“Hillsdale is like her happy place. This is like heaven for her,” Garnes said. “She loves being the center of attention. She’s a little diva, and she gets to live with a bunch of other girls so she’s like, ‘They all love me.’”

Garnes said the limited number of dogs on Hillsdale’s campus restricts Sapphire’s interaction with other canines, but Sapphire gains lots of human attention.

“She likes people, but she doesn’t like big crowds,” Garnes said. “We’re kind of the same personality-wise. We’re both introverts who really love people and socializing, but then get really tired. We both get overwhelmed by big crowds, but we love one-on-one conversations. So I take her to the laid-back events.”

Garnes said Sapphire was with her during her freshman year but she didn’t come back to campus for Garnes’ one semester of sophomore year.

“Taking care of an animal that you really love is a commitment,” Garnes said. “It reminds me to commit to taking care of myself as well, because I feel like that’s something you can really forget about in a busy college environment. It’s not like I hate taking care of myself. It’s just something that I’ve got to do. I would never forget to feed Sapphire one day, but why is it so easy for me to forget to do simple things like that for myself?”

Privitt agreed, and said having a dog has taught him to balance his responsibilities. He said he has learned that taking care of a dog isn’t always convenient.

“After a long day of school, or you come back from the library after writing a paper, and you walk in, you’re like, ‘Not again, please. Not tonight,’” he said. “But they’re two different worlds. She exists on her own clock, and school exists on a different clock. And sometimes that just doesn’t work out.”

Privitt said Squirrel will live with him after graduation, and said the added responsibility of having a dog is preparing him for life post-graduation.

“If you’re a junior or senior and you’re living off campus, it can be a great way to stretch into the maturity of what it might be like living on your own,” Privitt said. “That’s a whole side of life that has nothing to do with school and not much to do with social life — the things that don’t have to do with academics or school still need discipline and still need thought.”