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Jeff Davidson | Phoenix Staff

Willets Cat, known as Hemmingway to some, is seen between Public Safety and Willets Hall.

BY ALLISON GANTT

In print | Published April 15, 2010

When abandoned kittens appeared on campus in late March, members of the college community were inclined to help and offer temporary shelter. But while staff members are seeking out homes for the kittens, students have been keeping others in their dorms, which is prohibited by college policy.

Assistant Dean for Residential Life Rachel Head said that she heard reports of a cat residing in Mary Lyon last week through conversations with other students about recent Facebook posts involving a kitten, but she added, “Nothing has been confirmed.”

Two students from different residence halls, however, said that they are each currently keeping a cat in their respective dorm rooms.

Both students, who requested anonymity because they are breaking college housing policy, said that they are keeping these cats until they can find them homes.

“We’re pretty sure that she belongs to someone, and we’re looking around, but we haven’t found anyone yet,” one of the sources said.

Though saying that she didn’t know anything for certain about students keeping cats in dorms, Head said, “It’s definitely not a good idea if [a cat is] inside the dorm at all.”

Under official college policy, students are not allowed to keep pets in their dorm rooms, mainly because of potential allergy problems.

“[When] we ever become aware of animals inside [dorms], we usually work through the RAs to let the residents know that that’s not appropriate and that they should get rid of them,” Head said, adding that she plans to contact the RAs to remind them of pet policy as her next step in response to this situation.

A student with a pet is charged for any damages the pet may have caused to the living space. There is no other punishment for students.

Cats and other pets may even have unconsidered side effects, Head said.

“A lot of times [cats drag dead mice] into dark places … and then you get very smelly, decomposing mice hidden all throughout the dorm. Dead mice attract other mice,” Head said.

Bedding and food of pets can also attract mice, Head added. She referred to a mouse infestation in Alice Paul last year, which she believes was prompted by the bedding and food of a student’s hamster.

In fact, Head said that last year a group of students submitted a formal proposal to place a cat in every residence hall in response to Mary Lyon’s mouse infestation, but it was denied for these reasons.

One of the sources currently keeping a cat, however, said that the cat does not seem to have caused any problems.

“She’s not public in the dorm at all, so students who have allergies are by no means forced to be in contact with her,” this source said. “She’s very set aside from the rest of the dorm.”

This student’s cat was found on March 26 outside of Lang Music Hall. This kitten matched the age and description of a group of kittens discovered under a dumpster in the water tower parking lot around the same time.

This student added that students have placed an advertisement in the local Swarthmorean, asked campus faculty if they know anything of her origins, and plan to place flyers in a local veterinarian’s office.

The other source found a cat around the same time near Kohlberg Coffee Bar.

Stephanie Specht, the Administrative Assistant for the Mathematics and Statistics Department, said in an e-mail that she helped find one of the kittens by the water tower a home when a student brought it to her office. That cat now lives on a farm killing mice, she said.

Owen Redgrave, Director of Public Safety, said that if Public Safety finds a stray animal that does not have a tag or appears wild, “the only tool we really have is to confine it and call [Swarthmore] animal control,” Redgrave said.

He added, however, that he did not believe Public Safety was involved with this case of kittens.
The campus-noted “Willets Cat” — a cat that trolls around Willets — is an exception to the pet rule because she does not live in the dorms, Head said.

Tori Barber ’13, a Willets resident, said that the cat goes into the dorm on occasion when students bring her in to play with her, but “she doesn’t like being in there much.”

Barber said that the cat is also very friendly and safe.

“If you’re nice to Willets Cat, Willets Cat is nice to you,” Barber said.

Redgrave agreed that the cat, which Public Safety calls Hemingway, is good-natured and clean.
Hemingway only tends to visit for short amounts of time and does not tend to stay year-round.

“Maybe she does have an owner out there,” Redgrave said.

Hemingway, however, is an exception to how Public Safety handles stray animals. Redgrave said that often if Public Safety gets involved in a case involving stray pets they find identification on the animal.

“We get lots and lots of … lost pets from Borough residents … and we’ll often look, and they’ll usually have happy endings,” Redgrave said.

Erin Schlag, a biology coordinator and lab instructor, said that when she saw the cats under the dumpster last month, she sent out a notice in the Faculty Digest that afternoon asking others to adopt.

“I put out the announcement and I got a lot of feedback from people giving me information about no-kill shelters,” Schlag said. “There were no people who were interested in adopting them.”

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