St. Andrew's College always welcomes summer visitors, but this June was especially interesting when various forms of wildlife decided to see for themselves why this campus building is so fascinating.

Missing Friday the 13th by only one day, St. Andrew's had an unexpected visitor June 14, discovered about 7:30 a.m. by summer Dean of Residence and Master of Divinity student Janice McCloskey, who was on her way to work.

A deer crashed through a basement window of the College in mid-June.

Hearing a strange noise coming from the basement just as she was about to leave the building and knowing there were only about six people living in the fourth-floor residence rooms, she decided to investigate. Security issues fall within her mandate.

"The first thing I saw was a lot of blood, so fearing the worst, I started down the stairs to the basement corridor," McCloskey reports. She had just reached the landing when she was startled by a young buck deer who was resting in the lounge area. She quickly retraced her steps back up to the residence and the police were called.

It turned out the year-old buck had crashed through a basement window, injuring himself on the broken glass. Because the building's basement floor is a half-storey below ground level, he would have fallen some seven feet before landing. It took caretaker John Pulak about six hours to clean the walls and floors of the entire new wing's basement corridor.

Sadly, it was necessary to have the animal tranquilized and later euthanized by staff from the University's College of Veterinary Medicine.

The next evening, St. Andrew's residents were surprised to have a bat flying around the ceiling of the residence hallway. After stunning it with a broom, they went to find a container in which to put it, but upon their return it had vanished - likely to some hidden crevice somewhere in the building.

Earlier in the month, an injured pigeon was reported by several people just outside the north entry to the building. A call to local bird expert and U of S Professor Emeritus Dr. Stuart Houston (a recipient of an honorary degree last year from the College of Emmanuel and St. Chad) was made, and he arrived to take the pigeon to the Veterinary Teaching Hospital.

On a happier note, as of mid-August St. Andrews folks reported they were anticipating the blessed event of the birth of several ducklings. A large pond just to the east of the College, complete with bulrushes and grasses, has attracted a number of waterfowl, including a pair of wild ducks who have made their nest in a cozy corner of the garden just outside the chapel.

Jean Goldie is Assistant to the President at St. Andrew's College.

For more information, contact communications.office@usask.ca

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