Roommates Rachel Ha and Jessica Rockswold don’t like to stay out late. The Weinberg juniors coordinate their class schedules to ensure one of them is always home in the afternoon. Together, they’re raising a 2-year-old and 6-year-old.
When Ha and Rockswold moved into their first apartment this fall, they were joined by Micki, a 6-year-old Yorkshire Terrier, and Suzie, a 2-year-old black Lab mix.
Ha and Rockswold are each responsible for another creature at a time when most of their peers are just getting use to being responsible for themselves.
“Actually, it’s kept me on track of things and made me more responsible,” Ha said. “I do my things quickly so I can take care of my dog. It kind of puts my life in order.”
Though Ha sent Micki to live with her parents after the Yorkie underwent surgery last quarter, she continues to help care for Suzie. Ha said the biggest benefit of caring for a dog in Evanston isn’t the added responsibility, but the connection to a community outside of Northwestern.
“It’s a big part of the Evanston community. People are friendlier to you on the sidewalk,” Ha said. “I feel like when I lived on campus, Evanston was another world and when you go to the dog beach you have a chance to talk to other people.”
When apartment-hunting last spring, Ha and Rockswold held out for months for an apartment that would allow their furry roommates. The building they eventually chose is itself a community of pet lovers; the girls say there are pet owners above, below and down the hall from their apartment.
“It’s really nice to know people aren’t going to be really offended if your dog might jump on them in the hallway,” Rockswold said. “People are out with their dogs too, they’re not angry about a bark once in a while.”
McCormick senior Megan Mann said she had similar difficulty finding an apartment that allowed dogs when she moved off-campus with her Border Terrier, Alia, in fall 2006.
Mann has been showing dogs since she was 6 years old and was hired to show dogs professionally in high school. Alia, now four and a half years old, is a champion dog and has been competing in dog shows since she became eligible at six months.
Though Mann trains and grooms her champion pooch in preparation for upcoming competitions, she said Alia’s company is the best part of being a pet-owner.
“In general, it definitely makes things better,” she said. “It relaxes me because I have to go outside and go for a walk a couple of times a day. And she’s really enjoyable to be with. It is extra work, but it’s worth it.”
While Mann said owning a dog gives her a sense of being part of the greater Evanston community, she said she rarely sees other NU students out with dogs.
Not all NU pet owners choose dogs. Music junior Kimberly Peitso and her boyfriend, McCormick senior Ben Murphy, share a pet rabbit.
Calliope, a black American cottontail, lives with Murphy in his off-campus apartment during the school year and goes home with Peitso on breaks. The couple joked about their “joint-custody arrangement” and said they chose a rabbit because they’re “super cute.”
Murphy, who has also owned dogs, said rabbits are a very different kind of pet.
“They’re simultaneously high and low maintenance,” said Murphy. “They don’t require socializing or structured play time like with a dog. … They’re high maintenance in that they’re very short lived so any kind of sudden change in diet can kill them. It’s just not the same kind of attention.”
Calliope isn’t Murphy’s first rabbit and he said he doesn’t intend for her to be his last.
“I really like having (rabbits) as pets,” he said. “When my first rabbit died, I came home and it was sad. It’s sad with any pet, it just happens quicker with rabbits.”
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Dan Fletcher/the daily northwesternWeinberg junior Jessica Rockswold stays in a small apartment with her roommate and a two-year-old Labrador mix named Suzie, which she got from a rescue shelter.
