Freddie. When he died, she got two more to replace him. Those two also died pretty quickly. I remember Lili being very upset over the deaths. When the last one was sick and near death, we tried to revive it by warming it up with a hair dryer. Of course we failed, but we were trying anything to help Lili feel better!” Busted? “No, I don’t think so. We lived in ULC 233, which was a seven-person apartment with private bedrooms. She kept the cage in her bedroom.” Words of wisdom: “Stick with something small so it can stay in a cage or tank. Avoid smelly pets, or at least keep the cages very clean so they don’t smell. A lot of people use hamster bedding made of cedar, which has a strong and distinctive smell, too. You don’t want an RA catching a whiff of the pet smell out in the hallway.” Tech pet rebel: Jenn Selby Swanson, Arch 01, an architecture designer living in Baltimore, Md. Her story: “It was sophomore year, 199899, fall and winter quarters. My sister’s neighbor bred hedgehogs, and I fell in love with them. They are so unusual! I initially named him Hercules, but when my good friend at Tech had to watch him off campus for the weekend, she nicknamed him Fat Bastard [after the Austin Powers character] due to his foul and unfriendly demeanor. The name stuck. He was a complete curmudgeon, but he had an adorable face, which won most over.” Busted? “Not even once. We weren’t an unruly bunch in Center Street, so I never worried about staff coming in. I honestly never thought about it. He was in a cage, didn’t bark, and didn’t smell. Totally low maintenance.” Words of wisdom: “To quote George Costanza, ‘It’s not a lie if you believe it.’ A bit of an analogy stretch there, but still applies. Just bring your pet into your dorm like you would any other personal item like it totally belongs. No one will be the wiser.”
Tech Pet Hall of Fame Tech has played home to an odd assortment of critters over the years. Here are a few of the most memorable. Stumpy’s Bear When the Yellow Jackets ventured to California for the 1929 Rose Bowl, football players Jack “Stumpy” Thomason, Cls 30, and Bob Randolph, Cls 29, returned with a black bear club. The bear, called Bruin, lived with them near campus. It was known to ride in the back of Stumpy’s car and to drink as many as 20 Cokes at a time at the local drug store, but it also was arrested for scaring residents and drunk and disorderly conduct. The bear went with Stumpy to Buffalo, N.Y., where Stumpy coached a team called, of course, the Bears. Sideways After being hurt in an accident, the terrier was adopted by Tech students and lived on campus from 194547. Students still visit Sideways’ grave on campus. Queen Elizabeth In the 1910s, the football field keeper housed a pet mule underneath the stadium’s east stands. No, we don’t know why he did this.
Clifford Joe Auer, Cls 64, bought a lion cub and kept it on campus. The cheerleaders for the Northside High School Tigers painted stripes on Clifford and used him as a fill-in for their mascot. Alvin A group of students living off campus in the 1960s bought a goat to help keep their lawn trimmed; they never saw it eat but the lawn stayed short. Finally, one resident saw the goat eating late at night. This spawned a phrase that became popular among Atlanta’s hippies: “Goat Eats Grass at Night.” Socrates Professor Daniel Fielder, MS EE 48, PhD EE 57, kept his dog with him on campus from 1965-81. He buried Socrates on the lawn of Van Leer Building. Woo John Heisman had a soft spot for his pet poodle. It’s said Woo ate ice cream every night.
GTALUMNIMAG.COM VOLUME 90 NO.1 2014
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