Leaving home to attend a college or university often leads to big changes for a student. One of them can be leaving behind a pet cat, dog or other beloved animal. Kimberly Brubaker says she feels emotionally connected to her two pets a cat named Dino, and a snake named Mars. If an animal is part of your entire life, and caring for them is a huge part of it, to take that away is pretty dramatic, she told the Associated Press. So when Brubaker left home to attend Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida, she brought her pets with her. And college officials gave her permission to live with them in a school-owned dormitory. In the United States, Eckerd is not the only school to accept pets in student housing, but it may have been one of the first to do so. Since the early 1970s, the college has accepted many kinds of animals.