Sweet as powdered sugar: Churro the cat
By Jenna Munswami and Connor Reichert
One of the friendliest faces on campus is not a staff member or student, it is junior social work major Paige Bonica’s two-year-old cat, Churro.
Not only is Churro energetic and curious, but orange, fluffy and very friendly toward others! Churro has made dorm life better for Bonica.
Lending a helping paw with anxiety and depression, Churro also makes sure they both get outside every so often by making it known when he wants to go for a walk.
Churro even doubles as an alarm clock, assuring that Bonica stays on schedule every morning, in his own chaotic way, by knocking over his food bag or even nudging phones out of the way to get attention on him.
Bonica found her cat the summer before her sophomore year. The initial intent was to find a shelter to take the orange kitten in. That plan changed due to the stray’s odd nature.
“He’s so docile … he was never mean or anything. We brought him indoors briefly for the night and he just laid on the floor and was super chill. So we were like, ‘No, he’s ours,’” said Bonica.
Upon bringing the cat home, she filled out the emotional-support animal forms, meaning Churro was officially registered and ready for Rider.
Both of them have adjusted well to college life since then. The campus environment ended up being perfect for Churro to be taken out with the added protection of a harness and, while indoors, he has enough room for his “zoomies,” as Bonica called it.
Bonica also commented on the precautions she had to take to keep a pet in her dorm.
Among them is ensuring that the cords for any blinds are kept out of the way, after an incident in which Churro got looped into one.
Certain foods and cleaning supplies are also kept out of the curious cat’s reach. However, Bonica pointed out that Churro is quite well behaved.
“For the most part, he doesn’t do anything he’s not supposed to; so I got lucky with that, because cats are not like that,” Bonica said. Churro proved himself, as during the interview he appeared calm and relaxed.
His outgoing disposition has made him beloved by many of Bonica’s friends. Among them is Boston Huhman, a junior management and leadership and healthcare management double major.
Huhman recounted the first time he met Churro, saying, “[Bonica] took him out and he was just roaming around right outside of Lynch Adler…He was just excited to be laid in the grass. And ever since then, I’ve tried to see him at least once or twice a month.”
Churro has even earned himself the adorable nickname “Little Man,” courtesy of Huhman, because, even as a kitten, he was larger than an average cat.
Huhman also finds emotional-support animals to be helpful to college students.
“I think you should be allowed to have animals on campus. I mean, so many people in college deal with stress and deal with the anxiety of being alone and away from home,” Huhman said.
In Bonica’s experience, the process of registering Churro as an emotional-support animal was, luckily not a difficult one.
Bonica said, “I’m very happy that it wasn’t too much of a pain to fill out things. So far, so good then, we’ll see what happens.”
This article is part of the Rider Pets series by The Rider News to feature pets across the Rider community.
