After finishing her exams, Nicole Waye, a fourth-year computer science student, stumbled into the path of a hungry, irritable animal in Queen’s Park. Tracking Waye for "what felt like hours," the animal stared at Waye for an “unnaturally long time” before scurrying away and continuing northwards.
The tense, hunched-over animal was “holding a disheveled notebook” in one hand, and a large cup of coffee in the other. Due to its erratic gestures, Waye assumed that it was “not his first cup of coffee of the day.” There seemed to be “a sense of distress and urgency behind his eyes,” displaying the anxiety of wondering where, what, and when his next meal would be.
In an interview with The Boundary, Waye expressed that she was “caught off-guard” by the disoriented, over-caffeinated animal and “just couldn’t quite make out what was going on in his head. His behaviour was bizarre and totally unpredictable.”
To avoid such unnerving encounters during the final week of exams, students are encouraged to plan alternate routes around campus. If a student must pass through Queen’s Park, they are advised to walk in a buddy system and to avoid direct eye contact with any on-edge, famished students.