Abby Jump, Special to The Denisonian—

If you’re lucky, you might see some in the morning as they sniff around grassy areas around campus with their owners a few feet behind. Most, you don’t see at all.

They stay in residence halls during all hours of the day, waiting patiently for their owners to return. Maybe you didn’t even know they were here.

Emotional Support Animals (ESAs) on Denison’s campus are a feature that many may not be aware of. Although similar to service animals in regard to aiding in their owner’s health, ESAs provide services to students with mental or emotional issues that couldn’t suffice with separate means of treatment.

According to Jennifer Vestal, head of Denison’s Academic Resource Center (ARC), “There are 11 students approved for ESAs this fall.”

Vestal, who has worked at Denison and its ARC center for over 27 years, finds that this form of emotional support for students is a relatively new phenomenon.

“I would say it’s been within the last decade that this has come up, and it’s still a relatively small entity, because the reasons a student would qualify for an emotional support animal really relate to the nature and severity of, in most cases, their mental health disability,” Vestal said.

For many students, this is a dream come true. Not only would you gain companionship on campus, but those who are struggling also would be able to gain a new sense of reliability within their schedule with the addition of pet caretaking.

Despite all this, Denison’s ESAs exist under an unusual rule of circumstance: “The ESA is tied to the room, not just the building, but the room in which you reside in,” explained Vestal.

Mostly, this rule doesn’t pose a significant issue to campus pets and their owners. Still, in terms of the types of animals students bring to campus, Vestal has seen it all: “I have approved sugar gliders, which are kind of like these little squirrely animals,” she said. “I know somebody who’s had a hedgehog in their room and a chinchilla in a cage.”

The more popular ESAs match up with the common types of pets at home, such as dogs and rabbits. And, of course, the most popular type of ESA is the one that doesn’t have to leave residence halls at all: a cat.

“I have a cat, and she is happy in her apartment. Yeah. So it’s not really something that I would have to think about as much,” said Caroline Tikkanen, a 20-year-old junior psychology major from Aurora, Ohio.

Her path to getting an ESA started with a simple suggestion from her therapist: “We were kind of talking about the possible benefits of having an ESA and how she thinks would be a good idea, and then I emailed Denison,” she said, “and I was like, ‘Hey, I really want to get an ESA. What’s the process for that?’ And then they gave me a ton of forms to fill out.”

According to Denison University’s official Emotional Support Animal Policy, to have an ESA, students must complete a four-step process that involves officially registering their disability with the university, multiple meetings with ARC, and personal and professional statements deeming them eligible.

However, these steps weren’t enough to dissuade students such as Tikkanen. Despite the volume of information needed from her, Tikkanen didn’t perceive this as a major challenge, or feel as though Denison wanted to make the process harder for her.

“It was a little confusing, just because it wasn’t entirely clear what I was supposed to do next. The email exchanges that I would have with people would like, naturally take a while for both me and the other person to respond, and like each email exchange, I’d only get like one sheet at a time of like one form,” Tikkanen said.

After completing the semester-long process to have her ESA approved in the fall of 2022, Tikkanen adopted Mochi, a grey domestic shorthair kitten, with her roommate Janett Cordero, a 20-year-old junior psychology major from Dallas, Texas.

“Mochi is my baby,” Cordero said. “It’s so rejuvenating to come to my apartment and know she’ll be there.” Mochi, who was used to living in a double-sized dorm room for half a year, now lives with Tikkanen, Cordero, and two new roommates, one of whom is allergic to cats.

Nonetheless, Tikkanen and Anastasia Wood, 21, a junior Environmental Studies major from Green Castle, Indiana, worked out a few features to keep the space as allergy-friendly for Wood as possible: air purifiers, dander hairbrushes, and lots of allergy pills.

Mochi has even become somewhat of a celebrity for Tikkanen’s friends, who frequently stop by during the week for a chance to spend some time with the cat. And Mochi, who used to be quite shy and skittish around people, has adjusted well to her newfound guests and much larger living space.

Most days, Mochi can be found curled up on her orange flower cat post in front of the living room window, which overlooks the walkway from the apartments to the academic quad, and allows her to watch dozens of students on their way to class every day.

So, the long and winding road that Tikkanen ventured down to bring her to where she is today was, as she and her roommates see it, completely worth it. And when Tikkanen looks back on the entire process, with its ups and downs, she only has one thing to say about her experience with ARC, and Jennifer Vestal: “Jennifer’s awesome,” she said.

Those who planned to bring an ESA to campus for spring semester had to turn in the necessary paperwork by Nov. 1. The deadline to apply for the fall of 2024 is March 1 at the Denison Academic Resource Center.