If you haven’t noticed, we have a friend roaming around on campus. I am not talking about a rat, squirrel or skunk scurrying along the sidewalks.

It is an animal, but this animal does not take kindly to wandering the streets of Joplin. Its domain is right above our heads. Let’s put it this way you may want to watch yourselves when you walk underneath the trees.

Just last Tuesday, I was walking to the Billingsly Student Center for lunch and noticed what looked like a goose on the lawn in the Oval.

Boy, was I wrong. When I looked at the weird creature again I saw it was a hawk having its lunch a la picnic style. What stinks is I should have grabbed a camera had I known the hawk would be dining among the students.

Whatever it had killed, the hawk was ripping the poor victim to shreds. He was definitely kicking up what looked like fur or feathers.

It looked like my dog digging up a hole in my backyard. I did not walk closer to the hawk to see what he was eating for fear of being attacked.

Not knowing what defense mechanisms hawks have while they eat their food, I did not want to be a Curious George.

I have noticed the hawk on campus frequently, but have never seen it land and devour its meal out in the open for the entire student body to see. Not that that is a problem.

It’s really cool to have an animal like that soaring above the campus like a personal watcher, watching your every move to each building.

It makes me wonder where our little friend lives. Not that that is a problem either.

This made me think we have a student living on campus not paying a cent of tuition or room and board.

Actually, I think it’s more of another mascot. Or, maybe we can announce the hawk as the official campus bird.

All the states have an official bird; why can’t each of the colleges and universities have one?

Right now, our buddy does not have a name, but we could hold a contest to find the best name for our neighbor.

It seems we have a contest for everything nowadays.

For the present time, I am naming him Tony (there’s a joke behind that).

Although some may say a lion can certainly take down a bird like a hawk for food, the lions on this campus are not going to lay a paw on the king of the skies.

At least we have something protecting our campus from a bird’s eye view (no pun intended) while we protect our campus from the ground.

Remember, keep your eyes to the skies if you want to see Tony.