Veterinary students’ perennially popular cat calendar celebrates the feline mystique
It has become an annual harbinger of winter that’s far more welcome than the first snow or rising heating bills: the return of the annual Tufts Cats calendar.
The 2014 calendar showcases 70 proud cat owners’ photographs of their pets. The kitties were chosen from among 189 photos submitted to the Cummings School’s student chapter of the American Association of Feline Practitioners.
This year, a surprising number of cats wear costumes or clothing. However, interviews reveal that this trend doesn’t indicate that cats are becoming any easier to herd—only that this particular cast of feline characters is more open than usual to those kind of shenanigans.
Take Russell, for example. While the former feral barn cat generally doesn’t care to wear costumes, Cummings School fan Chris Powers says that “for whatever reason, he does not seem to mind his green jacket.”
Stihl similarly welcomes a bow tie. “He must know he looks handsome, because he struts around the house when he has one on,” says owner Allison Prokop, V15.
And Ewok “doesn’t mind being dressed up”—something that owner Jessica Zorge, a staff assistant at the Tufts Wildlife Clinic, says happens quite often, thanks to her 2-year-old daughter.
The annual Tufts Cats calendar contest has proven a breadwinner for the student group, known as the “cat club” on the Grafton campus. Sales from last year’s edition raised more than $300 to help fund events the association sponsors for its 50 members and for the veterinary student body, including a field trip to a cat show; talks on nutrition cases, cat behavior and managing stress in shelter cats; and labs on cat handling, neurology and intensive care procedures.
The 2014 calendars ($15 for the first calendar, $10 for each additional one) will be sold at the Cummings School’s Holiday Craft Fair & Student Sale, which takes place Dec. 3 from noon to 3 p.m. at the Elms Café in the Agnes Varis Campus Center on the Grafton campus.
If you are on a Tufts campus, you can place an order by emailing aafp.tufts@gmail.com. Include your full name, student year or department and number of calendars requested. Checks, payable to Tufts AAFP, will be accepted at the holiday fair or through campus mail to Kate Vezza, V16, Cummings School. Calendars are also available for alumni off-campus; email aafp.tufts@gmail.com for ordering details.
Genevieve Rajewski can be reached at genevieve.rajewski@tufts.edu.
