School portraits / Senior Dog Day from the kitchen table · April 2020
At Crossroads' Senior Dog Day, the Cat Had a Law Degree
In April 2020 a Santa Monica school moved a beloved senior tradition online. Cats and rabbits were welcome, and one of the cats was overqualified.
Senior Dog Day at Crossroads School in Santa Monica is, by the school's description, a decades-long tradition in which seniors bring their dogs to campus to trot through the Alley, drop in on classes, and nap on and under the picnic tables. In the spring of 2020, with prom and graduation postponed or canceled and everyone at home, it was about to become another casualty.
Instead, on April 30, it went online. The school's dean of student life suggested it, and two student council members invited the seniors to send photos and videos of their pets, cats and rabbits welcome, with fun facts. One of them edited the clips into a music video. Pets also made guest appearances in senior Zoom classes all day.
The school's write-up names three of the stars. "There's Bugsy, who once ate a rock; Ginger, who loves to swim; and Mittens, a cat who, remarkably, earned a law degree from Ohio State."
Our dog has a certificate from a six-week puppy class in which he was asked to leave in week four.
I want to linger on the list, because it is a perfect piece of escalation. A dog who ate a rock. A dog who loves to swim. A cat with a law degree. Each fun fact is a little less plausible than the last, and the school published all three with a straight face and the word "remarkably."
Mittens is the one I'd hire. A cat with a law degree has the right temperament for practice: never in a hurry, never impressed, bills by the nap.
The video was meant as more than a joke. One of the organizers said they hoped events like Senior Dog Day would remind everyone of the community the class had built together over the year. In April 2020 that community was a grid of kitchens.
In our kitchen that spring, the eldest was in sixth grade, Zooming from the end of the table, and the dog was on her feet. Her class had a pet day too. She presented him with one fun fact, which was true: he once ate a whole rotisserie chicken off the counter, including, the vet confirmed, the string.
He looked into the camera with no remorse of any kind. A boy in her class held up a hamster. The teacher asked whether our dog had a law degree. "No," said my daughter, "but he passed the bar." She had been waiting all week to say it. Nobody laughed but me, in the next room, and I was on mute.
Sources
The public records, school pages and published accounts this story draws on. Where the story imagines a scene or a line of dialogue, that is the column’s telling, not a quotation.
- Senior Dog Day Goes Virtual, Crossroads xrds.org
- Crossroads Upper School xrds.org
- Crossroads public parent and student reviews niche.com