What do students really do after school? Most will probably say, “do homework” or something along those lines. However this is not true for everyone. The truth is, LHS has some students who have an absurd number of pets or even some exotic pets to take care of after school! In a recent survey, most LHS students indicated that they have dogs, cats, and other common pets. However, the survey also revealed  that many LHS pet owners look after pets which are in no way shape or form common. Long story short, many students own pets which honestly probably belong on a farm or a zoo. There are a couple of questions that people may wonder such as, “who watches their pet when they’re gone,” or “how much does pet food cost per month?” No matter what the cost is though, people love their pets and see them as family so they will give whatever it takes for their pets.

 The interesting part about people’s pets is when they own uncommon animals as pets or an uncommon number of animals as pets. The first name that comes to mind in terms of uncommon pets is Gryffin Cowell, senior at Larned High School. He owns 200+ pets in total! When asked, he said some of the pets he owns are “I have 3 emus, I have 14 peacocks, and then I have a bunch of tropical fish.” Gryffin also stated his favorite thing to do with the exotic pets is to take them to the petting zoo.

Gryffin isn’t the only person with a ton of pets, this next person has 70 dogs! Cassidy Ary’s family owns 70 racing dogs not including her personal pets. She owns 21 pets that are just her own. In her survey response Cassidy indicated that loves to go on walks with her dogs and cuddling with her animals.

Not everyone owns that many pets though, Maddie Runnels only owns one animal. She said “I own a Blue Nose Pitbull named Gracie.” She has owed Gracie for around 6 years and counting. She loves to walk Gracie around the block and watch movies with her. The big issue is the price of dog food though, she stated, “I spend around 40 bucks per bag of food.” She does get to save some money on dog sitting because her family does that for free.

Not everyone gets the luxury to have someone pet sit for free. Anna Bunger said, “I usually have a family member who does it, if not I will pay for a pet sitter.” With her owning a snake though it makes it harder to find someone who will pet sit at an affordable price. Nevertheless she loves all her pets and would do anything for them.

Students aren’t the only ones with pets, Mr. Ratliff, one of our History teachers, owns some fur babies of his own. When asked what pets he owed he responded with, “I have five pets, 3 cats and 2 dogs.” They give him joy when he gets home from a long day at work. They brighten his day with their tail wags and playfulness.

In conclusion there are a bunch of ups and downs with people and their pets but the Ops tends to outweigh the downs. LHS can be happy with the amount of devoted pet owners we have at our school.  It doesn’t matter if they own 200 pets or only one, everyone of LHS’s pet owners truly cares for the animals they raise.