School portraits / Senior Pet Day · May 2022
Rained Out of Pet Day, Mason Spent Three Hours in the Office
Lakeside School's Senior Pet Day came back in 2022 after two pandemic years off. The weather, and one dog, had other plans.
On Friday, May 6, 2022, Lakeside School in Seattle revived Senior Pet Day after a two-year pandemic pause. The student paper, Tatler, sent its editor, who arrived at the Quad under gray clouds to find a dozen pets frolicking, barking and playing with each other: disorder, he wrote, in the best possible way.
A senior had brought the tradition back. She had heard about it on her Lakeside tour, discovered there were no plans to revive it, and asked an administrator whether they could please do it. She lined up donated goodie bags for the first fifty pets.
The reviews from owners were candid. One reported that her dog had made a lot of new friends and a few new enemies, and was interrupted mid-interview by a scuffle involving that dog. "She may physically be a small dog," the owner said, "but mentally she thinks she's a large dog."
I have met this dog. I have also been this dog, at every parent-teacher conference since 2015.
Another owner had run her dog, Mason, around the grounds about ten times trying to get his energy out, through the mud. She worried he was the only dog barking. When the reporter suggested others probably barked too, she clarified that he had been barking for no reason, just standing there barking all morning.
Then, early in the afternoon, it poured, and Pet Day was called off. Most owners got their pets to their cars. Mason's owner had already taken the car to an appointment. So Mason went to the main office, where, she said, he sat with the staff, who were super nice, for three hours. He was well behaved. They had a great time with him. Still, she wanted it noted: "he smells really bad when he gets wet."
Three hours in the main office, damp, behaving perfectly. That is the most dignified detention in the history of education, and it smelled.
The organizer, looking back, said that in past years people had brought rabbits, and that one person even brought his little brother on a leash.
Lakeside's seniors have a broader talent for this kind of thing. Two years later, a student recalled that year's senior prank, in which the seniors taught all the classes for a day.
Our dog came to the youngest's school for a pet show once. He sat in the corner for an hour, barking at nothing. The teacher asked if he was always like this. The youngest said, "Only at home," which was a lie, and which I have never corrected.
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.
- Tatler: The Perilous Adventures of Senior Pet Day tatler.lakesideschool.org
- Lakeside School: Contact Us lakesideschool.org
- Tatler: Lakeside’s beloved traditions are what you’ll remember in the end tatler.lakesideschool.org
- Lakeside: Food lakesideschool.org
- Lakeside Seattle public student and alumni reviews niche.com