Why getting a pet is the best way to spend your loan

In the wake of the recent battle for the crown of Selly’s cutest hamster, you might have been inspired to run out and grab one yourself and have a fluffy little companion. Equally, you might have thought that getting a uni pet is a waste of time, and a waste of money.

The Tab is here to tell you why, if you fall amongst the latter, you are wrong.

They’re always happy to see you

There is literally nothing nicer than coming home from a shit day, walking into your room, and having a tiny animal rush out to see you (providing you actually have a pet, if not this can be unnerving). If you look after it, love it, nurture it, it’s unlikely your pet will get pissed off at you. It won’t steal your milk, and it won’t call you a snake on YikYak.

They are comforting

There’s something about holding something small and furry that just warms your heart and makes you feel loved. It’s definitely not just because you feed it and make sure it isn’t living in its own shit either. Definitely not.

It teaches you how to budget

Nothing makes you save a few pennies at the end of term like having another teeny tiny mouth to feed. It’s not okay just to spunk your money to the point where you can’t feed or clean an animal that you decided you would take care of.  Maintaining a pet isn’t actually that expensive, but it teaches you to have enough responsibility to know that if your little buddy needs food, bedding, or a trip to the vet, he has to have it.

It’s something to talk about

In between saying things like “I have so much shit to do”, or “I am fucking stressed”, it can be quite nice to throw in a little anecdote about your pet. It can momentarily take your mind off the hours you’re facing in the library, and it’s really nice to actually feel proud about a decision you’ve made at university.

To prove our point, The Tab spoke to two of Selly’s pet owners.

Second year English Lit student Hannah Adler owns two gorgeous rats that she has christened MC Grindah and Prince Phillip, with the aim of having a little road man as well as a tiny gent. She said: “My rats are amazing: They’re friendly, happy, and run up and down the cage like crazy when I come home from Uni.

“Prince Phillip (named after the fit prince from Sleeping Beauty, NOT the English dude) took the Esc button off my laptop and MC Grindah chewed the cardboard vinyl I bought him and didn’t even attempt to learn to mix.

“But, I adore them for the moments where they sit on my shoulder and snuffle in my ear – they love me in the little cute way that only a rat can do.”

She also added: “Closing statement: rats are gas”.

Shannon Farmer, an English Lit and Lang second year summed up her feelings towards her beloved hamster Britney by simply saying: “She’s a puddle of love.”

With testimonies such as these it definitely seems possible that whoever said “a house is not a home without a pet” was a student who’d just come out of Pets At Home.