College Students with pet birds...
Olivia's Mom
I had to leave my parakeet, Khus Khus, with a friend of mine for a whole
year because the U of I forced me to live in the dorms for a year. He
couldn't stay with me because I would have been SO busted-and besides, my
bird needs room to fly:)
Nina
Love always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
-1 Corinthians 13:7
On Sun, 8 Feb 1998, Jason Werling wrote:
> This may be far-fetched, but has anyone tried to keep a pet bird in their
> college dorm? I am trying to do a story on pets that are kept in dorms
> and would appreciate any ideas. Interesting off-campus stories would be
> great too.
> Jason Werling
> jw19...@oak.cats.ohiou.edu
>
>
>
>
Carrie
Jason Werling wrote:
> This may be far-fetched, but has anyone tried to keep a pet bird in their
> college dorm? I am trying to do a story on pets that are kept in dorms
> and would appreciate any ideas. Interesting off-campus stories would be
> great too.
> Jason Werling
> jw19...@oak.cats.ohiou.edu
I know of someone (not a friend, just someone I know of) who kept her bird(s)
in her dorm closet. I live off-campus with a dog and three birds, but no
interesting stories yet =)
--
Carrie Jamrogowicz
http://www.geocities.com/CollegePark/1744/
It's not easy taking my problems one at a time when they refuse to get in
line. --Ashleigh Brilliant
Jason Werling
MRP
Well, I swore I'd never tell anyone this, but here goes.... My baby,
Merlin, lived with me for 10 months in my dorm. NO ONE KNEW... not even
my best friend (who was an RA)... (except my roommate)... We also had a
Miniature French Lop rabbit who lived in our closet & the last 5 weeks,
we had my puppy, Snotty, with us... Believe it or not, I used to take
Snotty outside in a brown grocery bag... No one was any wiser... Now..
Merlin, on the other hand, had this VERY bad habit of crowing EXACTLY
LIKE A ROOSTER at around 5am... well, we (my roommate & I) talked the
guys in one of the frat houses across the street into buying a few hens
& roosters for their yard.... EVERYONE thought it was them!!!! For a
while, I thought people really did know about my little zoo, but...
after we all left & I asked a few people about it, they thought I was
putting them on & had to confirm it with my roommate!!!!
Good luck...
Kellie
> Well, I swore I'd never tell anyone this, but here goes.... My baby,
> Merlin, lived with me for 10 months in my dorm. NO ONE KNEW... not even
> my best friend (who was an RA)... (except my roommate)... We also had a
> Miniature French Lop rabbit who lived in our closet & the last 5 weeks,
> we had my puppy, Snotty, with us... Believe it or not, I used to take
> Snotty outside in a brown grocery bag... No one was any wiser...
But how humane is that? Birds and rabbits in closets? My rabbits have the run
of the backyard- which is going to soon be the run of a new pen in the
backyard... My birds get to sit out in the sun when the weather is nice. (Not
direct sunlight- no flames, please) It seems terribly sad to make a critter
live in total darkness just so you can have him or her.
> --
Kellie
And Shake the Quaker Parrot!
DOUG COOK
Training and presenting birds shows,and training and handling all sorts
of animals for movie and media productions has led
me to some fairly bizzare adventures sneaking critters like ravens,
parrots, and even a mountain lion into (and out of) hotel rooms. One
time I managed to keep a half dozen macaws in a hotel (undetected) for
5 days--told the desk I was an entertainer that worked late and slept
all day-so room service left me alone. Had to buy a "dust buster " vac
to clean up the evidence
Doug Cook
"I do believe that an ARMED society is a
POLITE society"
John Popper/Blues Traveler
Angelica Goss-Bley
I am a college student living in a dorm at the moment, and am very
interested in getting a bird. I'm doing a lot of research at the moment on
different birds, and would love to hear the outcome of your story!
thanks,
Angelica Goss-Bley
In article <Pine.OSF.3.93.980207...@oak.cats.ohiou.edu>,
Jason Werling <jw19...@oak.cats.ohiou.edu> wrote:
>This may be far-fetched, but has anyone tried to keep a pet bird in their
>college dorm? I am trying to do a story on pets that are kept in dorms
>and would appreciate any ideas. Interesting off-campus stories would be
>great too.
> Jason Werling
> jw19...@oak.cats.ohiou.edu
>
>
_________________________________________________________________
---------------------- angelica goss-bley -----------------------
goss...@cornell.edu --- angeli...@hotmail.com
http://www.people.cornell.edu/pages/aig9/
"That's not an experiment you have there, that's an experience."
Sir R.A. Fisher (England, 1890-1962)
_________________________________________________________________
Kellie
> Training and presenting birds shows,and training and handling all sorts
> of animals for movie and media productions has led
> me to some fairly bizzare adventures sneaking critters like ravens,
> parrots, and even a mountain lion into (and out of) hotel rooms. One
> time I managed to keep a half dozen macaws in a hotel (undetected) for
> 5 days--told the desk I was an entertainer that worked late and slept
> all day-so room service left me alone. Had to buy a "dust buster " vac
> to clean up the evidence
>
> Doug Cook
Doug, This would make a great movie- would have been perfect for Peter
Sellers, but now Rowan Atkins will have to do! Now, tip toe, Mr. Mountain
Lion! Or did you disguise him as a maid?
The good news is that your beasties got to get out once in a while- I'm
afraid college dorm pets might spend most of their lives in darkness.
--
Kellie
Daniel Ulanday
Jason Werling wrote:
>
> This may be far-fetched, but has anyone tried to keep a pet bird in their
> college dorm? I am trying to do a story on pets that are kept in dorms
> and would appreciate any ideas. Interesting off-campus stories would be
> great too.
> Jason Werling
> jw19...@oak.cats.ohiou.edu
I just finished college. I lived in a duplex with 4 other housemates
(not
counting pets). I had two cockatiels and my roommie had a lovebird.
The
best thing was that my landlord and my roommate were one and the same
person. No need to hide the birds! My other housemates called our room
the
'rain forest'. The only problems we encounterd was due to the fact that
I
always let my bird out of the cage when I was in. Being the landlord,
my
roomie was slightly annoyed that my pets were responsible for more poop
than
his pet.
--
Daniel Ulanday
remove the X to respond via email
MRP
Unfortunately, I didn't make myself completely clear... "Roadie", the
rabbit, didn't spend the ENTIRE time in the closet... just to hide him
there when someone came in... As for my beloved Merlin (cockatiel), he
was never in the closet... If someone came in, he simply got to go to
the bathroom with myself or my roommate... We were fortunate enough
to have a "single room" (meaning, no suitemates...), so... we had the
"run of the end of the hall"... Also, Roadie spent many, many afternoons
during the final 5 weeks of school at the park, running around with
Snotty! As a matter of fact, for the first 3 months of Snotty's life,
he "hopped" on his leash instead of "walking"... I'm sorry for any
misconceptions... still trying to handle the loss of Merl...
MRP
Kimberly Kohler
Kinda Long, but I love to tell this story...
Well, I didn't get my birds until I moved out of the dorms and into an
apartment, but I did jump the gun a little on my first cat. I had
wanted to have a cat all my life and swore I'd get one the moment I was
out on my own (my parents don't have pets as my Dad is in the Airforce
and we frequently travelled overseas. Moving every three years to a new
home preceeded by 6 months (or even just a few weeks) of quarantine is
cruel to a pet who won't understand WHY she has to be abandoned for a
time every three years).
My room mate in the dorms moved into an apartment in the middle of the
year and brought her cat up to live with her. I kept Pushkin in the
dorm room for a few days so he wouldn't be underfoot while she was
preparing the new apartment and I absolutely fell in love with him. A
few months later, a stray cat on campus left a litter of kitten in a
sorority basement (she'd come in for protection from the cold and one of
the girls in the building closed the window while "Mom" was out. They
discovered the kittens the next day and couldn't convince Mom to return
- terrified of people). Anyway, my room mate was a friend of the grl
that found the kittens so she took them to Pushkin's vet and got them
nursed back to health. The vet found homes for the kittens among their
current patients (this was not the first litter of kittens from this
same stray cat - we simply can't catch her!) But my room mate claimed
one for me, having noticed how much I liked her cat.
The deal was that Arra (the room mate) would keep the kitten until
school got out, but she had a visitor a few days after the kitten (now
named Tatiana Victoria - or TV for short) came home who was allergic to
cats. I volunteered to keep the cats in the dorm again for the few days
required to air out the place and vacuum up all the cat hair, etc.
After spending two days with my very own kitten I simply couldn't bear
to send her away again. She was so tiny (only 4 weeks old) and could
hardly make a sound, let alone alert my neighbors, so my boyfriend and I
cat proofed the room and there she stayed for the entire quarter.
I must admit, I skipped a lot of classes to stay home and take care of
the kitten and I gave a few trusted friends spare keys to check in on
her between their classes, so she had pretty much constant company.
Word spread fast, though 'cause I couldn't resist showing her off and
before long people I didn't even realize knew my name were stopping by
to visit the kitten.
We would talk about her in code in the hallway. "I turned the TV off"
meant you'd played with her until she got tired and fell asleep.
"There's some ghost story on TV" meant she was in a wild mood and
"chasing spirits" as we called it.
One day after I'd had her there only a week I went into the room, having
only just left a wildly active kitty a fe minutes before and she was no
where to be found. I frantically searched all of her "usual" hiding
spots, shook out every shoe I owned, but could find her no where. I
called my boyfriend in, bawling that I was a bad Momma and had lost my
kitten. He joined the search, and we eventually found her, fast asleep,
inside a 16oz. coffee mug, part of a one cup coffee maker, still in it's
half open box, in another box of stuff I didn't have room for, tucked
away in my closet. She was so cute and had no idea she'd caused me such
anguish.
The R.A. (Resident Assistant - dorm counselor, whatever you call them at
your schools) live one door down and across the hall. I don't know how
she didn't find out since everyone else knew and she hated my boyfriend
(she was a hypocrit about dorm rules and he called her on it every
chance he could) so she was constantly looking for a reason to get us in
trouble. But it wasn't until finals week of that quarter that she asked
me in an offhand tone "Do you have an ANIMAL in there?" Tati was going
in for her 3 month old check up (yep she lived in the dorm for 2 solid
months) that day so I said I'd been keeping her for the day for a friend
and was bringing her home. TV was still so little at that time that we
carried her to the vet in a camcorder case (didn't want to buy a carrier
until we knew how big she would get). I showed her to the RA on the way
out "Wave goodbye Tati, you're going home" who couldn't help but coo at
her a little, despite her usual attitude toward me - Tati is a charmer!
The vet gave TV a distemper shot that knocked her out cold, so on the
way back into the dorm I simply slung the case over my shoulder and
carried the "empty" bag back into my room, where the cat remained for
the rest of the week until school was over.
Now I have quite a zoo in my Chicago apartment, 3 cats (including Miss
TV, of course), 10 finches of various types, 2 love birds, a dozen or so
fish, 2 fire bellied toads, and a husband (same guy who was my partner
in crime back in the dorm).
The toads, incidentally spent a week in the dorms. They were a gift for
my husband's birthday, but had to be purchased a week in advance.
Joel's best friend, a year behind us and still in school, volunteered to
keep them in his room so I wouldn't have to spoil the surprise. The
official rules at NU are "No animals that don't have gills" so he
convinced the RA that toads do indeed have gills. Since firebellied
are semi aquatic, they lived in a small fish tank with a few
platforms. That seemed to satisfy the RA, who didn't really want a
conflict over something that would be gone before he could write it up
anyway.
Kimberly
Kellie
> ....
> Snotty! As a matter of fact, for the first 3 months of Snotty's life,
> he "hopped" on his leash instead of "walking"... I'm sorry for any
> misconceptions... still trying to handle the loss of Merl...
Sorry about Merl- and sorry if I jumped to conclusions about the closet rabbit!
Take care.--
Kellie
MRP
Apology not needed... I went back & re-read my post... boy! Did I sound
like the martyr, or what? Oh well, just goes to show what grief can
do to you!!!!
MRP
gwen
Include me in on thinking that this would make a hilarious movie. I have to say Jim
Carey would be an excellent character for the part! I think better than Peter Sellers,
even though Sellers would have been good. Can you imagine the disguises! Outrageous.
Doug,
Maybe you should write something about it and turn it in to a Movie director or
something. I can see a major hit.
As far as the college dorm business, I can't feel that any animal that isn't allowed can be,
being taken proper care of. It seems like a breeding ground for neglect as far as I can
see. Could be wrong.
Cheers,
Gwen
Froggy4U
I have two Russian Dwarf Hamsters in my dorm room. Last year my RA knew
but didn't care, this year my RA cares, but doesn't know. I have had a few
close calls with maintence, but we put them in the "Hamster Hotel" (our storage
closet) when we know officials of the school will be coming over, otherwise
they are a part of my room.
Good Luck on your story Jason!!
-Sonja
Terri A Gordon
I had a beautiful little Rainbow hen (keet) in my dorm for 2 years. The
only gripe from my suite mates was the chirping in the morning!
He had plenty of light always, and fresh air from the window during the
warm months.
Terri
On Sun, 8 Feb 1998, Angelica Goss-Bley wrote:
> I am a college student living in a dorm at the moment, and am very
> interested in getting a bird. I'm doing a lot of research at the moment on
> different birds, and would love to hear the outcome of your story!
>
> thanks,
> Angelica Goss-Bley
>
>
> In article <Pine.OSF.3.93.980207...@oak.cats.ohiou.edu>,