Morgan Markley
Senior Reporter
The Keene State College mascot may be the owl but KSC students are showing more love for other types of critters.
Whether it’s a bearded dragon or a cat, the KSC community boasts many different pets, and their student owners don’t mind the extra responsibility.
Senior Alex Wolff owns a bearded dragon named Agave. Wolff said the hardest part of owning a pet is the initial getting used to how to take care of the pet. He said the initial costs were demanding. “I had to figure a lot of stuff out. It was like trial and error,” he said.
Now that Agave is all settled in, he lives in his own cage, Wolff said, “He’s got five different lights on him. He’s got like a UV light, to you know, to replace sunlight and he’s got four heat lamps, daytime, nighttime lamps. So it’s this huge 40 gallon tank with a nice big screen top to it and all the lights just sitting on top of the screen top.”
Wolff said there is an added responsibility that comes with owning a pet, but that turning on Agave’s heat lamps isn’t one of those responsibilities, “They’re all on timers so like I don’t have to go and manually switch it, it just turns on and off on its own.” Wolff did say though, “I have to feed him every day. He gets crickets and mealworms every day, so that in itself is kind of an extra responsibility.”
He added that he has to chop fresh vegetables everyday. “He eats kale–he’ll eat anything, bananas, apples, peas … he eats a lot.”
Wolff said that owning a pet hasn’t been that expensive but rather the expenses in the beginning made it seem like a lot. “Since I’ve got it all set up and got the routine down it costs me–I think crickets are like 60 of them for $3. And I just give him scraps of what I eat, lettuce or if I have a tomato or a piece of apple, I’ll just throw it in his cage and he’ll eat it right away, so it’s not that expensive,” he said.
“The cool thing about him is that most lizards–I’ve had snakes and other lizards–and they sleep during the day and are active at night, but he’s day-ternal—he goes to bed at like eight every night.” He added, “I’ve never had a lizard like this before. It’s kind of weird.” According to Wolff he has found the perfect pet, “I’ve always had lizards—I had a cat and the cat hated me and I kind of hated the cat so I gave that to my buddy. A lizard is probably the best thing I can get because I’m not allowed to have dogs or cats at my place, so it’s kind of the best of both worlds. He’s big enough to be a pet; it’s not just some little dinky lizard.”
Deena Snerk, a senior, owns quite a different animal. She has a brown tabby cat named Izzy. Snerk said that having a cat actually keeps her more organized, “You have to care for something besides yourself. You have to be home to feed it, make sure that they have food and the litter is changed and everything, but I mean for me it keeps me more on-top of things and more organized really.” In order to take care of Izzy, Snerk makes sure she is fed properly, “She [Izzy] has dry food out all the time, but I feed her a tablespoon of wet food every night.” Similar to Wolff, Snerk said most of the expense comes in the beginning, “It does cost some money, I mean getting her fixed and everything…it hasn’t been terribly expensive, and the food isn’t that bad, but it’s buying all the stuff in the beginning that’s really the most breaking on your wallet.”
Even though owning a pet may cost extra money Snerk believes it is worth it, she said, “I definitely have to say that the benefits, I don’t know, it’s just better than the cost.” She continued, “It is therapy, like really, because I mean I have a real difficult major. I’m a biology major which is really stressful, and to come home and have someone who isn’t going to talk back and is just there to hangout and just be with you it’s not complicated or anything.” Snerk said that time management with Izzy hasn’t been bad, “I’ve never left her alone for longer than a day overnight, my roommates are always there, if I’m gone for a weekend or something—but I’m usually gone on campus all day and then when I get home I feed her.” Snerk added, “She’s [Izzy] pretty good. She kind of keeps herself occupied anyways.”
“I just had to pay a small deposit fee…they [landlord] actually suggested getting an animal because at first when we moved in we had a mice problem. They actually suggested getting a cat.”
Senior Tom Seaton owns a Siberian Husky named Jericho and has had Jericho for about a year. Seaton said that he doesn’t noticed much of a change in his lifestyle. He said there was “no difference” in added responsibilities.
Seaton agreed with fellow pet owners Wolff and Snerk and said, “When we first got him when he was a puppy it was more expensive because he had to get all his shots and stuff, but now food’s not too bad it’s like $40 to $50 every couple weeks or so.” According to all three pet owners the good outweighs the bad. Snerk said, “It’s just really great I don’t have any complaints, really…I love having an animal.”
Morgan Markley can be
contacted at
mmarkley@keene-equinox.com