Although most students cuddle up with their dogs and cats every night, some students actually aren’t able to get that close to their pets.  This is not because they have an allergy, but actually because they have an exotic type of pet.  Although it isn’t normal for students to have exotic pets, there are actually a few students at Aspen High School that have unique pets.

Sophomore Ladd Taylor happens to be one of the few students that has an unusual pet squirming around his house.  However, Taylor is also unique from others because he has always been into bizarre/different types of pets.  Over the course of Taylor’s life, he has had three birds, two deadly spiders, a chinchilla, a lizard, plenty of frogs, a turtle, and some snakes. Through all of his experience with different types of animals, he has come to the conclusion that reptiles are his favorite.  Therefore, his favorite pet was his lizard.

“Exotic pets are more interesting to me because they are something that are different and animals that you won’t see in daily life,” Taylor said.

Because Taylor loves these exotic pets he keeps getting them, especially if one dies, since he knows he has to replace it.

Ironically, if Taylor could get any animal right now it wouldn’t be one that is out of the ordinary.  In fact, it would be a German Shepherd that he would probably name Murph. Murph is short for Murphy, which stands for a special ops guy that died a couple of years ago.  This special ops guy is important to Ladd because he has always enjoyed and been inspired by military forces.

Other owners of an exotic pet are sophomore Stella Kaplan and senior Eli Kaplan.  About two years ago, Eli had been looking online for a new pet after his bird died.  When he came across a wolf breeder in San Diego, he knew that’s exactly what he was going to get.  So a couple of weeks later, they flew down to San Diego to pick up their new wolf, Luca.

Although Luca is a wolf, most people on the streets wouldn’t be able to tell that she is different from any ordinary dog.  However, the Kaplans have gotten stopped on the streets because of how beautiful she is.  Just because most people wouldn’t be able to tell the difference between Luca and most dogs, doesn’t mean that their close friends can’t see her distinctiveness.

“She is a rare beauty with a gorgeous and extremely soft coat,” junior Jordan Cramer said.

Along with Cramer, most people that have met Luca think she is stunning.  These people can also tell that she loves the pack feel.  Therefore, she is very protective over their other dog.

“Although you would expect for Luca to be very dominant, she is actually extremely well behaved,” Stella Kaplan said.  “She did, however, take more training than a usual dog.”

At this point even though Kaplan loves her two dogs, she would take an even more risky route by getting a baby tiger, because she thinks it would be adorable.  She would name it Peachy, since she also hopes that it would be loving but fun.