Many times that I have been asked about my greatest times in college. I think and I ponder, and I act like it’s something I can’t bring up without being inappropriate, but I know damn well what my greatest moment in college was.
The weekend my dog stayed with me.
Duke Carpenter, who stayed with me
I was a freshman at Champlain College in Burlington, VT. I lived in a victorian mansion-turned raunchy co-ed dormitory and my dog came to party. It was parents weekend and my parents were naive enough to think we were going to stay home and watch movies.
After my roommate scoped the hallways, he gave me the all-clear to scoot Duke up the stairs and into our room without our RA catching sight. The school had a strict no-pet policy. Duke is a well behaved dog and we didn’t have to worry about him barking, so once we got him in we knew we were good to go and that this Friday night was gonna be lit.
Before we even left the dorm room pre-game, we were covered in bitches. Word spread of Duke’s appearance and girls were coming up and visiting and provided us with more female interaction than we ever had in our entire college career to date. We then hit the town with Duke in tow. Did anybody deny us entry to parties? Absolutely not. Is that rare to say for two freshmen guys? Absolutely yes. Duke was the center of attention in every room of every party, absolutely soaking it up while swaggin’ out in his rainbow bandana. We had a great time. Then we went home and that’s when shit really hit the fan.
We had a few too many and were a bit less cautious making our way into the dorm circa 1AM. We were more focused on cultivating our order from WingsOver than the fact we were illegally shepherding a canine into our room. Then it happened, like the moment you see a cop in your rear-view, our RA called out from afar and we knew we were busted red-pawed. There was nothing we could do. We couldn’t leave because we would have to come back, we could couldn’t run to our room cause our RA knows damn well where we live, and we couldn’t apparate because you can’t do that on school grounds. So with all our might we collected ourselves and faced our fears, our RA, and guess what she said?
“Oohhhhhh what a cute puppy oh my GOD he’s adorable!!!! Let me pet him!!!!!”
She loved it, we were dumbstruck, it didn’t look like Duke was going anywhere. Again, he has a way with bitches. Next thing I know she asks if she can play with him in her room to show her friends over Skype. I said sure, because we wanted WingsOver badly.
An hour later I went back down to my RA’s room and went in, and there I saw it, my little brother in bed sleeping with my RA.
What. A. Legend.
Now I question to myself, what if every weekend of college was like this? How cool would college be? Well now students at SUNY Canton have the answer. The school has introduced a pet friendly dorm, according to The Watertown Daily Times:
“A lot of students come to Canton specifically because we have a pet wing,” he said. “It is a good recruiting tool for the college. Students desire to have pets with them at college.”
Mr. Kennedy said students find bringing pets from home often cures them of their homesickness.“I think that it really just comes down to that: students are comfortable with their pets from home,” he said. “At most colleges you can’t do that.”
“Many of our students live there because they love animals,” she said. “The students in the pet wing look to those students for a little bit of support. They look to vet-tech students for a little bit of guidance.”
The school is now home to over 100 pets for 140 rooms. It is actually noted that the wing smells better than most other dorms because these students are responsible and know their privilege can be revoked if they mess with the rules.
However, of course there is some catch. 1. No alcohol (ok, all dorms say that) and 2. No dogs.
NO DOGS? HOW DO YOU ALLOW FEROCIOUS FELINES BUT NOT DELIGHTFUL DOGS???
I mean, it’s still cool, but I’m not sure if it’s go-to-SUNY-Canton cool.
