Fifteen minutes before the ceremony, Doerak’s caregivers, Sandra and Ekko Ros, arrived with the famous cat in his favourite box. They had to fetch him at the last minute to make it in time to get his student ID; Doerak had already shown up at the Harmonie building at eight that morning, but an hour before the ceremony, he’d decided to go back home.
Ekko Ros is grateful for all the attention Doerak has received over the past few months. ‘He was in mourning after our other cat passed away. We’ve seen it before with our cats, but Doerak is a real drama queen and mourned for at least six months. All the attention he got from the students really helped him.’
Big moment
Inside, Doerak made himself comfortable on the platform behind the automatic doors at the back of the Harmonie building. Like usual, every student passing through knew him and stopped to pet his soft fur.
When it was finally time for the ceremony, Doerak received his official ID and a gift basket of tasty snacks to help him survive his lengthy study sessions.
Unofficially, Doerak has already been crowned a professor. But now, he has also begun his new adventure as a student at the RUG. Doerak won’t have a study programme; he plans to sample classes from all of them like a true Renaissance feline. It doesn’t really matter what he’s learning, as long as the classroom is cosy.
RUG staff wished Doerak good luck with his academic career and told him to work hard on his final thesis.
Cat book
The University Library also has a special cat book – complete with a tail – just for Doerak, which he can pick up using his new ID. Doerak now has his own student number, so he can register on Nestor for all the ‘history of cats’ classes that he can’t wait to sleep through.
Caregiver Ros couldn’t say whether Doerak will be on the hook for tuition fees. But Doerak would like to join a student association, and Ros has already contacted one. Unfortunately, the association’s board turned him down: only human beings are allowed to join.
At any rate, Doerak seemed pretty pleased with himself after the ceremony. But at the time he wouldn’t say whether he planned to stay up late celebrating. Either way, he would probably take lots of cat naps the next day.