We’ve all had some sort of pet growing up whether it was the zany cat that followed you home from the bus stop or the puppy that you talked your parents into getting for your 10th birthday. As a youngster, your pet probably seemed more like a living stuffed animal that magically took care of itself.

But once the freedom and often unanticipated responsibility of college sinks in, what does it mean to have a pet? Does the reverie of a perfect and self-sustaining animal remain true, or are your childhood paradigms completely shattered? Four students at the University of Oregon, and their four very different animal companions, share what it’s like to have a pet in college.

Bunni Krass, a junior at UO, adopted an adorable black, six-month-old bunny about a year ago after seeing an ad on Craigslist.

“It was kind of a rash decision,” Krass said. “Before I had a car, it was hard to buy his food and bike home with it.”

Her bunny, Dabs, is an energetic black ball of fluff that follows her every move, acting more like a docile puppy than a bunny. And now that Krass has a car, taking care of Dabs has become much easier.

It seems that a common theme among pet-owners in college is the spur-of-the-moment decision to adopt something furry. Or in the case of Elisa Juarez-Sculuca, something spiky. She bought a hedgehog in February 2015 in Portland after a hiking trip at Silver Falls and named him Frank in honor of her late great-grandfather.

“Taking care of him is easy with my schedule,” Juarez-Sculuca said. “He is nocturnal, so he’ll sleep most of the day if he could.”

When he’s not asleep, Frank basically runs laps around Juarez-Sculuca’s living room or searches for dark and cozy places to nap. But the low-maintenance nature of a nocturnal hedgehog is not extremely common, and size does not always correlate with effort.

Junior Hanna Emerson owns a one-year-old tabby cat named Henry, who is energetic and sassy in the most endearing way possible.

“He’s a crazy cat, but having him probably helps me more than anything,” Emerson said, as Henry propelled himself onto the couch and nearly tore down the blinds from the window. “Cats are a lot different than dogs too, so he’s pretty self sufficient.”

Senior Max Lemkin makes owning a dog in college seem like a piece of cake. Lemkin has a one-year-old dog named Lulu who is half pit bull and half Labrador (as far as Lemkin can tell). Extremely playful and polite, Lulu is the dog incarnation of Jessica Day from FOX’s New Girl.

Lemkin got Lulu near the start of summer 2015, so his long break from school granted him the appropriate time needed to potty-train a new puppy.

“Having Lulu has definitely required me to wake up earlier and keep a tighter schedule,” Lemkin said. “But for the most part, I still do a lot of the things I normally did before, just with my dog.”

Whether it’s a dog, a cat, a bunny or even a hedgehog, each of these pets has its own unique way of brightening up its owner’s day. Although the initial responsibility of taking care of a pet in college can be somewhat of a reality-check, it is safe to say that the companionship pays off.

This is not a recommendation to run to the nearest pet store and buy the first fuzzy thing that charms you; however, increasing your responsibility is not the end of the world, especially if it means that you gain a loving companion in the process.