Zoology

I didn’t have a lot of friends growing up, so it’s no wonder that I stuck close to my dog, Mickey, a brown and white maltepoo (maltese and poodle mixed breed). Having also been a pre-med for two years, I inevitably had to take vertebrate anatomy courses, which were not pleasant because I had to dissect animals. But despite my repugnance for the necessary coursework, I was genuinely interested in physiology, and I took that interest home with me when I played with Mickey. I used to sweep him up into my arms and grab his little paws and coo, “These are your phalanges! And this is your metacarpus! And this is your radius!” I don’t think he liked it very much, now that I think about him.

The neighbor used to have a cat, too. She would come over through my backyard and visit me in the evenings, and then just disappear when I looked away. Old Europeans used to think that cats were the devil’s spawn, and as it turns out, so did the Chinese, which might explain my mother’s revulsion for the evanescent feline. “Get that thing out of here!” she’d cry, brandishing the business end of a broom.

I really like animals. They comfort me with their presence, and they don’t interrogate me or tell me what’s right or wrong for my life; so I guess it’s natural that I’d turn my pre-med work into a zoology major, and a chance at veterinary school after I graduate.

“I’m doing zoology,” I say to Rose.

“Ooh, do you like animals?” she asks.

“Yes, always. I used to have a dog.”

“Cool! Good for you. That’s not a major I hear about very often,” she laments, “and I have a dog back home, too, so I might have to learn something from you!”

Later, I access the website of the Department of Zoology and Ecology and look up the type of learning opportunities available for a transfer like me. As usual, there are research avenues as well as the typical zoology courses being offered.

Research could be especially rewarding, seeing as we have one of the country’s largest and most beautiful state parks just outside the university. It’s teeming with life, as I understand, and supposedly home to many a creature as yet not identified by our scientists in the department. I remember reading in the paper last year that the government had cut a lot of research funding, especially those not directly related to developing medical treatments. Naturally, funding for the study and preservation of indigenous species was among the first to go. The field remains, as the school newspaper editorializes, “driven by passionate professors and their grad students, and even a few dedicated undergraduates.

“ 'Oh I’m just out here on my own. I don’t have an assignment or an adviser or anything,' explains third year ecology major Kensuke Awatsu as he catches, counts, and measures local dragonflies, 'I’m just gonna keep doing independent research until they open up the undergrad research program again. I’m keeping my fingers crossed.' "