Pawsitivity: How Pets Help NIC Students Get Through Their Day

Students have many small things in life that help them get through their school day. For NIC students Ezra Tickmyer and Ellie Sykes, it is their pets. For many NIC students, their pets are a good motivation to finish their schoolwork and go home.

For Tickemyer, his dog, Doug, is his motivator. 

“It’s a good crash-out prevention,” Tickemyer said, “‘cause I can’t just quit my job and ghost the entire world and drop out of school because I have to pay for Doug. But also I’ve had him for so long that he’s become a permanent fixture in my life.”

Growing up, Tickemyer and his family had chickens, and Doug would help himself to an egg from the coop. “He’d go up there, he’d check on the chickens,”  Tickemyer said, “he would take an egg from the nesting boxes, carry it all the way back down to the house, drop it on the floor so it cracked a certain way, and then eat it on the couch.”  

For art major Ellie Sykes, her cat, Potato, helps her get to school.

“I kind of consider her a therapy animal, even though she’s not necessarily a therapy animal, because I know she definitely helps me get up in the morning,” said Sykes. Every morning, Potato wakes Sykes up by making biscuits around her pillow and helps her through homework by sitting on her lap.

Sykes said that watching Potato adjust to life in her new home after being neglected by her previous owner was “the most wonderful thing”. 

 As pets get more comfortable in their new homes, their personalities start to shine through.

“Just seeing her get more adjusted and not 24/7 underneath my bed,” said Sykes, “terrified when somebody comes over, watching her become the bubbly cat that she is, I think it’s just the best thing ever.” 

Having someone small who gets excited when you come home can be a great motivator to get through school. 

In fact, a study by the American Psychiatric Association says that pets have a mostly positive impact on their owners’ mental health.