Julie Byrd is spending her Valentine’s Day with the perfect date. He’s low-maintenance, he doesn’t talk back, and he’s pretty fly.
Yes – the six-legged kind.
“I love insects,” said Byrd, a entomology graduate student. “I wouldn’t pick it up and kiss it, but I do love insects. I just think they’re really cool. They’re beautiful. They’re bizarre.”
Boyfriends across the campus are either scrambling to come up with the perfect gift or putting finishing touches on their holiday plans. But for others, a good part of the day will be spent with four- and even six- or eight-legged companions.
Byrd, who does genetic work on leaf-mining flies, is one of many students who work with insects and animals daily, forming emotional bonds with their test subjects.
Laura Moore, also a graduate entomology student, enjoys working with insects but finds it difficult to confess her love to her friends, who can’t stand the sight of her creepy-crawlies.
“I found them completely fascinating, just for the fact that they’re so gross,” Moore said. “I think everyone secretly likes something that others find gross.”
Perhaps nowhere at the university are ties between animal and man so strong at the campus farm.
Tracy Catterton, a sophomore animal science major who works on the farm, can’t get enough of the sheep, especially Jon Henry the ram.
“He’s like a dog,” Catterton said. “He follows you around everywhere. He charged at me once, but I beat him with a broom, so he hasn’t done it since.”
Every animal on the farm has a name except for the newborn sheep, which will be named after Muppet characters. While the livestock do have identification tags on their ears, Lindsay Callahan, the campus farm manager, and most of her students can recognize each one by face.
“We seem them everyday,” she said. “They’re like my coworkers – except you probably don’t feed your coworkers or clean up their poop.”
“It’s an intimate relationship,” said Callahan, who will spend much of her Valentine’s Day among livestock. “They recognize my voice. They all have different personalities; you get attachments to them.”
“I really love these guys,” Callahan said.
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