Oberlin Blogs

Adorable Small Mammals of Oberlin

January 13, 2013

Tess Yanisch ’13

First up: the Doggie Doo!

Looking at Peters Hall and Memorial Arch from Tappan Square — Peters was looking especially lovely that day.

An information table for Invisible Fence

A dog is curled up on a blanket in the grass

A dog standing in the park

A dog on a leash wears a sweater with the words Adopt Me

A dog on a leash lays in the grass

The face of an Alaskan Huskie or similar breed

A happy pit bull is walked on a leash

Another cute dog on a leash

A skinny dog, perhaps an Italian greyhound

Above: Some dogs were shy.

A dog with the name Abbi on a scarf and wearing something on her head

Above: some were in clothes.

A small dog wearing a Cleveland Browns shirt

More dogs on leashes. They are trying to go toward other dogs.

Puppies on a blanket in a cage

Some were puppies!

A puppy, possible a Collie, on the brick path in Tappan Square

Then there were two dogs named Scooter and Wiggles. Each was missing one set of legs. Neither seemed to notice or care.

A brown dog on a blanket

A black and white dog on a blanket, in a cage, on the grass

A fluffy cat in an open cage in the grass

There were cats at Doggie Doo, too.

A cat leans back, enjoying a belly scratch

Of course, for cat cuddles, you can always go to the Ginko Gallery, where Liz, who owns the store, fosters kittens until they are old enough to be adopted.

Two kittens in a cage with blankets

Look how much they grow! Yo-Yo (the black-and-orange one above) got adopted, but then her owners had to move to someplace where they couldn't keep cats, so she came back for a while as one of the oldest kitties.

One of the above cats is held in someone's arms

The same cat, still being held

She wasn't wild about having her picture taken. I didn't see this sulky expression on her much. She liked to play and was a real escape artist; she needed a whole home to romp in.

A cat with orange stripes in a cage with a litter box

Above: this guy wasn't a kitten but a young cat, who hung out at the store for a day or two until his owner could be found. He was the most affectionate cat I've ever met, possibly even more so than my first cat, and that's saying a lot. You'd walk past his cage and he'd rub up against the bars and purr; if you put a finger through, he'd rub his cheeks along it and purr even louder. If you picked him up and held him he was practically euphoric.

Cat in a cage

Kittens exploring their cage

Kittens continue exploring

A kitten on a plate of cat food

Above: this is Mini. Liz likes to take care of really tiny kittens--the five-day-old kind of tiny. Mini, though, wasn't young, though we might have thought so had she not been found with her littermates, who were much larger than her. We don't know what was wrong with her--one vet suggested some kind of congenital heart trouble. She did very well for a few weeks, but didn't make it in the end.

The kitten is about the length of an outstretched hand

Mini, with my hand for scale.

Four black kittens play in their enclosure

Happier things.

A black cat eats from a bowl.

Remember the tiny kitten my brother got last Christmas? He's now the size of a young panther.

An orange and white cat patrols a seat in a corridor.

And then during finals week there was a cat inside King, one of the academic buildings. She kept trying to sneak into a lecture hall where people were taking a test, and actually tried to bite me when I carried her out.

The same cat being carried