Social Science Faculty Show Goodwill to All Creatures in a Winter Rescue Effort
December 18, 2025 - Karessa Weir
Amid the stress and deadlines of finals week, a group of Social Science faculty and staff in Berkey Hall had the chance to show “goodwill to all creatures” is more than just a holiday sentiment.
On Wednesday Dec. 10, Barnaby the bunny showed up in the deep recessed windows of the Berkey Hall garden level offices. First, he appeared in the window well of Integrative Studies Assistant Professor Emily Muhich and then visited fellow Assistant Professor Seven Mattes, both residents of the “Hallway 5” Center for Integrative Studies offices.
Muhich and Mattes simultaneously came up with the name Barnaby, jokingly attributing the name to the bunny “informing us via his bunny telepathy.”
“We were all saying ‘How adorable! How sweet!” Mattes said. “And then we stopped and said “Wait. Can he get out?”
Together with a group of five or six colleagues, Mattes and Muhich watched Barnaby closely for a few hours before beginning what they called “Operation Bunny Rescue.”
“We talked about how he might want to be there. We didn’t want to take away his agency,” Mattes said. “Once we determined that he really needed to get out and access other resources, we all agreed that yes, let’s form a plan to rescue him”
This is not the first time Mattes has dealt with furry visitors in her basement window. As an Anthropology PhD student in the Animal Studies specialization office, Mattes witnessed a cat and her kittens become stuck in a similar window well at Berkey. She knew the cat could get out but she and other graduate students had to help the kittens – ultimately adopting them out to Social Science professors.
And as the temperatures dove into single digits Wednesday night and into Thursday, Mattes and Muhich began to fear for Barnaby.
“We scavenged around Berkey to find anything we could use to make some sort of a ramp. We thought about using banners, mail carts, anything we could stack up so he could hop out,” she said. “Using the banners, we realized, would not be a good experience for anyone.”
As they wracked their brains for a solution, they gave Barnaby what comfort they could. Mattes passed dried fruit and granola bits to the bunny but still worried about him.
“It was the most frigid nights for him to be out there,” Mattes said. “We gave him so many snacks and he was hiding behind what bit of ivy he could find. We thought about giving him an office blanket but decided the cheap, non-water-proof fabric may have made him colder. “
Their efforts garnered quite a crowd of Berkey residents hoping to help Barnaby but it was Jason Almerigi, College of Social Science’s director of assessment, who found the answer. He brought a ladder into work on Friday and, together with gloves, an old white board and a blanket, managed to corner and lift the rabbit to safety.
It wasn’t easy.
“Jason is the true hero here. Barnaby would sit still and hope you don’t see him and then at the last minute, he’d run for it,” Mattes said. “We wondered what other ‘Hallway 5’ dwellers must have thought as we chased him up and down the long window well.”
But when Almerigi finally got the critter to the surface, Barnaby sat, sniffed and hopped away.
“He looked very confused and affronted but, in the end, hopped away happily,” Mattes said. “However, if he comes back, we are officially making Barnaby an office pet.”