Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities

Taking pets to college not to be done lightly

It was an exciting weekend, full of celebrations, family get-togethers and time with close friends — all begun by donning a cap and gown and taking those steps 12 years in the making.

Graduation is an inherently strange juxtaposition of completion and beginning.

For the majority of newly minted high school graduates, the next step is college — 69.2 percent went directly to college the fall after graduation in 2015, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.

As exciting as it is to have the world at one’s fingertips, there’s sadness at the thought of leaving, especially when trying to imagine going to bed without the dog warming your feet or the cat playing with your shoelaces in the morning.

Going off to college means adjustment and leaving beloved pets behind can be one of the hardest, especially if you have always had critters around.

Colleges have gotten wise to not only the enormous separation anxiety students have for their animals back home, but also the impact pets can have on quelling homesickness, overall quality of life, stress reduction and even performance improvement.

Coupled with an urgency to recruit students and an understanding that younger generations are more pet-centric, the result is a rise in pet-friendly college campuses and dorms.

From Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, which boasts a pet-friendly campus since the early 1970s, to Houghton College in New York, which allows students to bring their horses, the diversity of pet policies is vast and ever evolving.

Along with that, the intricacies of including a pet in one’s higher education plans can be complicated and potentially costly.

If the thought of packing off to school without the dog, cat, guinea pig, lizard or horse is too much to bear, there are things to consider:

• Change is hard — This is true not only for a first-time college student but for a pet as well. If taking the dog to school will mean trading mom and dad’s luscious yard for apartment living, hours alone in a dorm room and exposure to countless strangers, it’s important to weigh what’s in the pet’s best interest.

• Nothing is free — Pet-friendly schools are enticing and some even offer pet daycare to keep the critters amused while you’re in class, but don’t expect to get it for free. Pet-friendly dorms can wrack up higher housing bills, pet deposits are to be expected and the student also needs to have the resources to pay for pet food, grooming and medical care on top of it.

• Making friends is hard to do — especially if the person down the hall is allergic to dogs. Bringing a pet into a highly concentrated, often difficult to navigate social environment like dorm living can be challenging at best. Your pet needs to be quiet, housebroken, and easy-going and, even then, still might chase the neighbor’s cat or make people break out in hives.

It’s not a decision to be taken lightly. Consider going first to get a feel for the environment and adjust to college life before trying to hold a leash while lugging a new comforter set and trunk full of clothes up three flights of stairs. If, after a few weeks, you think your critter would thrive in the college world, fetch it over a long weekend or holiday break.

As long as four years seems to be, it will fly by and promises to be the experience of a lifetime, but remember, college isn’t for everyone and it’s OK if the dog needs to sit this one out.

Sharna Johnson is always searching for ponies. Contact her at: [email protected]