By Ellie White
After school, many McNicholas students go home to be greeted by their animal companion. Some have dogs, others cats, but a few own pets much less orthodox.
McNicholas Junior Kiernan Meakin has a pet that is a little more than unusual: a sulcata tortoise named Murtle. “[Once,] my sulcata tortoise got loose from my backyard where he stays and he started running down the driveway, [and] my cousin came inside and started yelling there’s a strange creature that has come out of the woods. We ran outside and our tortoise was walking really fast down the driveway. We tried to stop him by having our small cousin sit on him, but that didn’t do anything, so we had to draw him back into the backyard [by] holding a tomato and showing him the tomatoes until he went back into the backyard,” Meakin said.
Senior Lydia Holdread has a pair of Pomeranian puppies named Louie and Gracie. “There was one night my family, my boyfriend, and I were sitting in the living room watching TV with the puppies. My mother noticed Louie’s fur was all tangled behind his ears so she picked him up to brush him. She took off his collar and put him back down because she needed to get the brush from the other room. Immediately, with all of us watching, Louie walked over to Gracie, undid her collar with ease and brought it to my mother. He was so proud of himself, and we all about died laughing,” Holdread shared.
Hannah Herforth’s has an 8-year-old pug named Penny. “Recently Swiffer® commercials have been really popular and there are certain ones where in the commercial a doorbell rings. Every time this part of the commercial happens she freaks out. It doesn’t matter where she is, if she hears this she starts barking like crazy and jumps around and runs to every door we use to enter our house trying to figure out who is about to enter. This typically goes on for about 5 minutes. It makes me laugh every time it happens, and it’s nice to know that my little 20-pound pug is trying to protect my family and I,” Herforth joked.
Senior Emma Brandt has a cat named Daisy who she said is a “little odd.” “She likes to break into [my brother] Anthony’s room, and when she does she immediately goes under the bed, and she just hides there. He’ll yell things at her and she’ll just meow in reply…. She’s kind of obnoxious, but I love her anyway,” Brandt said.
While McNicholas pets range from all sorts of animals to all sorts of quirkiness, one thing is constant with among them all: every owner loves their animal friends.
The McNicholas Milestone 