by Janice Willard DVM, from the September 2005 Newsletter

The stray cat who showed up in my barn was gray and lean. He was scared, but also hopeful I would feed him. I wished he could tell me how he had come to be so frightened and homeless. Eventually, as I got closer to him, I could see a collar, one he had outgrown, digging into his neck. One night when he was so intent on eating that he forgot to watch me, I managed to cut the collar off, and relieve him of this misery.

My kids and I had named our other barn cats, five small calicos, after Tolkien’s Hobbits. This long, gray cat (who was troubled by a ring) earned the name of Gandalf the Grey. With food and a safe place to live, he is doing much better now.

The Humane Society had no report of a missing cat matching Gandalf’s description. I suspect that he was not lost; he was likely dumped. This is a perennial problem in college towns: in the spring the local shelters get deluged by dumped pets when their college student owners find that keeping them is more difficult or more expensive, than they anticipated.

“We generally have dogs turned in to the shelter,” says Lori Freeman, director of the Humane Society of the Palouse. “But we see more cats getting dumped out in the countryside.” With dangers like cars, coyotes, and starvation, it is doubtful many of these survive.

I remember feeling bereft when I moved into the college dorms myself, and, for the first time in my life, didn’t have pets around me. So I can thoroughly understand how students, when they get their first home, want to get their first, very own, pet to go along with it.

But a pet is a huge commitment. What will happen when they take a summer job, go on a student exchange, move to a new apartment or even find a boy or girl friend who doesn’t like their pet? Then there’s the cost of veterinary care and food. These possibilities may not cross the young, new, pet owner’s mind. Poor Gandalf, being slowly starved and choked by his undersized collar, shows what can happen when a pet owner doesn’t consider these things before adopting a pet.

My own first pet, Vixen, a spunky calico cat I got when I was still a college student, was my steadfast partner through many life changes. She was with me through umpteen moves, slept beside me, watched over me when I was sick, made me laugh when I was blue, and eventually purred on my lap as I nursed my children. She lived for 19 years and keeping her with me meant that I had to make compromises and plan my life to include her. And I am grateful my mother always welcomed Vixen into her house when I came home for summers.

So this is not to say that college students shouldn’t have pets in their lives. But if they do, they need to be aware that the pet they are inviting along on their life journey could live for close to two decades, as Vixen did, and that it is not a frivolous commitment. If they are not ready for that commitment but really need an animal to cuddle and hold (which I thoroughly understand), there are some other options: they could volunteer at their local Humane Society to help socialize the animals awaiting new homes.

“Volunteers that come and socialize animals are the most important volunteers that we have,” says Freeman. “We always encourage people to come in and play with the animals.” Volunteers can pet the cats and take dogs on walks. Having loving interactions will keep the animals from going “cage-sour” and improve their chances of getting a permanent home, and can give students a much needed fuzzy-fix without getting a pet before they are ready.

Once you’re ready to make a life-long commitment to a pet, you can be certain this is one college sweetheart who will never leave you for another, never disappoint, and will always be there with loving attention when you need it.

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