What Sleeps in Class, Stays Up Very Late And Loves Sweets?

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL ^ | November 14, 2003 | RUSSELL GOLD

[SJackson]

SAN MARCOS, Texas -- Lauren Wilkins attends classes at Texas State University with the usual accessories of a college student: pens, cellphone, textbooks. Less noticeable are her pocket pets -- two tiny marsupials, one asleep in her blouse pocket, the other in her cargo pants.

[goldstategop]

Cute lil critters. First ferrets, now sugar gliders. No one will ever own a Tasmanian Devil.

[avg_freeper]

Occasionally heard on campus:

Hey baby! Nice set of blouse possums!

[AmericanMade1776]

thank you for that article....I have a daughter in college..who is just like this girl...sent her the article..however....i hope it does not give her any ideas...just wanted her to know ..she is not the only one....at college who wants a pet in their dorm room. She did have the beta fish.

[KantianBurke]

Elizabeth Ann Munoz has run afoul of this rule twice. She bought her first sugar glider while a first-year student at Texas State "because I was kind of lonely and wanted companionship," she says. She tucked one of her gliders into her sports bra during the day.

[tiamat]

They are nice little animals and do not reek the way ferrets do.

Tia

[.45MAN]

ping.......

[kcvl]

Just be happy that she doesn't want a male student as a pet in her dorm room. ROFLOL!

[Lexinom]

On exotic pets: Arthropods are cute, too. The ones pictured below don't stink, require minimal care, and make no noise.

[kcvl]

[hellinahandcart]

The next year, she sneaked her pet back onto campus. This time, the animal disappeared one night into the drop ceiling and reappeared four floors away in another student's room. Now a senior, she lives off campus.

I can hear my late English teacher saying, "Is the sugar glider a senior in college, living off-campus?"

[snopercod]

I'm the kind of person who if things get hectic, I like to feel fur

Me too, but most times my wife won't let me.

[general_re]

They usually wake up and become frenetically active around 10 p.m., and don't settle down until much later. They bark and, when startled, they may let loose a noise very much like an electric pencil sharpener.

Arrrgh. Well, I suppose if they're not loud enough to disturb neighbors, that's okay. When I was a freshman in the dorms way back when, the girl across the hall from me had about a half-dozen lovebirds in her room, and every morning at 5:30 AM those damn birds would start cheeping loudly enough to wake me and my roommate from a dead sleep. She was otherwise a pretty nice person, but we were dreaming up ways to kill her and her stupid birds after a week of that...

[thiscouldbemoreconfusing]

Though they have serious drawbacks -- don't try to housebreak them -- sugar gliders fit in well on campus.

I guess my comment is best left unsaid.

[hellinahandcart]

Yeah, don't try to housebreak them; just let 'em crap in your pocket, or all over your desk. Great idea.

[Rubber_Duckie_27]

This is why I'd never keep one, or at least wouldn't carry it around with me. I'm not a fan of animals that can't be housebroken.

A lot of college students have pets, even though most colleges don't allow them in dorms. Fish were the only pets officially allowed at my college, but that didn't stop a whole lot of students from keeping other pets. A guy I know kept his Chihuahua in his on-campus apartment for 2 years and never got busted. There was at least one girl who had another breed of toy dog in a dorm room for years - again, never caught. I know many people who kept small reptiles (mainly turtles and snakes), and a number of people who had rodents (rats, guinea pigs). Oddly enough, the only people who had cats were those who lived off-campus.

[Rebelbase]

These critters are pretty low maintenance, you just have to keep them out of light, especially sunlight. Don't ever get them wet. Keep them away from water. But the most importamnt thing, the thing you must never forget....no matter how much they cry, no matter how much they beg, never, never feed them after midnight!

[FITZ]

That's what I was thinking --- whose going to want to sit next to someone who reeks of animal urine?

[Blood of Tyrants]

Flying Squirrels are much easier to keep, although still nocternal. And quite easy to tame.

[Jonah Hex]

"I'm the kind of person who if things get hectic, I like to feel fur," says Ms. Wilkins.

Not going there, uh uh, not touching that line. Wouldn't be prudent...