Fraternity houses are not known for being spotless - especially when some of the inhabitants shed all over the carpet.
But that's a price the brothers of the Alpha Tau Omega fraternity house are willing to pay for the company of Brando and Callie.
Brando, a yellow Labrador Retriever, and his sister Callie, a Chocolate Lab, can often be found at house parties and late night get-togethers stealing all the ladies and lapping up the attention.
"He's a really friendly dog" said Brando's owner, Wharton junior Rollie Peterkin. "Everyone loves him."
Peterkin, who adopted Brando - as in Marlon Brando - this past December, has slowly gotten used to owning his first dog.
"It's time-consuming, having to let him out and take him for walks" Peterkin said. "If I'm going away for the weekend I have to find someone to watch him."
Like Peterkin, many pet owners had more than their class schedule to consider when making fall break plans.
Because of commitments to the wrestling team, Peterkin does not go home often, but when he is away, Brando often has friends clamoring to watch him.
College senior Amanda El-Dakhakhni, meanwhile, relies on her roommate to watch over her two almost-identical Tabby cats Rosco and Oscar while she is away.
"Luckily they have each other so they don't get lonely while I'm in class or away for the night," El-Dakhakhni said of her less-than-a-month-old kittens.
El-Dakhakhni also spent fall break on campus to catch up on work but is unsure what she will do during Thanksgiving or winter break. She lives in Hawaii, and kittens don't travel far distances well.
Wharton senior Matt Doumar also finds his dog Aslan, a Golden Retriever-German Shephard-Chow mix, in high demand among his friends.
"Everyone walks him," Doumar explained. "He's a lady killer too, which helps."
Doumar just got Aslan this past summer from a local shelter, and while no one knows his birthday for sure, "we're putting it at July 4 because we're patriotic like that," Doumar said.
Like Callie and Brando, Aslan lives in a social environment -- the Phi Delta fraternity house - and is also considered quite the party animal.
However, while Brando tends to explore Penn campus or Clark Park with Peterkin in tow, Aslan has been known to venture out by himself when the house door is left open.
"He's been found walking into the gym at Pottruck, but he didn't have a PennCard so he couldn't get in" Doumar joked. But each time he's found by himself, Doumar stressed, people recognize Aslan and return him to the Phi Delta house.
"He's a popular dog," Doumar explained.
Unfortunately, not all pet situations are perfect.
Last January, College sophomore Alex Shahery and his roommate tried keeping Siamese fighting fish in their Hill College House dorm room, but they found the two fish, Diablo and Angel, could not survive the month.
But Shahery's story is not the norm, and many delight in their new unwavering companions.
"I was surprised when I first got them how happy they made me," El-Dakhakhni said.
