The school year is nearing its end and classes are trying to finish up all of the required teaching.

One thing the Human Anatomy and Physiology class does every year is dissect cats.

The dissection takes two to three weeks and is very informational to each student.

Mrs. Kandy Cousins, science teacher, thinks it is beneficial to the students.

“It benefits the class because most of the students plan on going into the medical field,” Cousins said. “The students are learning a lot and will take the knowledge they get from the cats with them to their future classes.”

So far, the class has dissected the neck and arm, focusing on the veins and jugular.

Senior Tyler Frasher thinks it will prepare him for future science classes.

“I am going into the medical field, so dissecting the cat, a specimen of such complexity, is definitely preparing me for college and the medical classes I will have to take,” Frasher said.

Each day, Cousins quickly goes over what the class needs to dissect and how they should accomplish it.

The students then put on dissecting aprons and surgical gloves and get out their cats to dissect for the day.

Students work together with a partner and share a cat.

Senior Mariah O’Leary likes dissecting the cat, but dislikes how they smelled at first.

“In the first few days, I hated the smell of the cats,” O’Leary said. “Everyone seems to have gotten used to the smell, though. It is interesting to see the anatomy of a cat and working alongside my classmates is fun.”

This year, seniors Brianna Finley and Haley Flynn were given a pregnant cat. Four teams wanted it, so Cousins randomly selected the team that would get it.

Flynn is excited to have the pregnant cat.

“We can’t wait to dissect our cat,” Flynn said. “It will be different from any other cat because we are the only team that have the pregnant cat.”

Each cat is different and you have to dissect it a certain way in order to accomplish the dissection.

Senior Alysa Figgins, HAP independent study student, has learned more this year than last year, when she was in HAP the first time.

“This year, instead of having just a single cat, I have had the opportunity to work with multiple cats and have learned that each cat is different as I have helped dissect them,” Figgins said.

Cousins plans to have the class dissect the heart and lungs next, which will truly be educational.

Senior Colleen Desrochers, future student at the University of Detroit-Mercy, is excited.

“Dissecting the heart and lungs will be cool,” Desrochers said. “I am taking advanced human anatomy in my first semester of college and will be dissecting a human being, so this will definitely prepare me.”