Last week a friend of mine lost her dog for almost 24 hours.  Initially we were sure she'd be back or we'd find her any minute, but as time went on without even a sighting we started to think the worst. 

It was a horrible experience for my friends and those of us who cared for Dixie and her owners.  But the most amazing thing was just how many people came out in 30 degree weather after dark for hours to help look in the fields and woods surrounding the area where Dixie was last seen.  Not only did friends come out to help, but people who were only casual acquaintances also showed up. 

Those of us who love our dogs and think of them as our family members can understand just how devastating it would be to lose one and not know if she'd dead or alive, injured, frightened, cold or stolen.  We can all relate to how chilling it would be to face the fact that your dog might never be found alive, or might never be found at all.  And the uncertainty would be even worse than finding that your dog had died. 

Luckily Dixie did come back the following afternoon.  She was cold, frightened, scratched up and dehydrated after a night  in the woods.  We will never know where she was or what she was doing during the time she was missing, but it's a miracle to have her back safe.  And  knowing that so many people care enough to help a fellow dog owner in a time when they are in need is another miracle. 

The Buddy System

In the past we've always kept two age groups in our camp session -- 7 to 9 and 10 to 13. For the first time this year we've held camps where the ages of the kids ranged from 7 to 13 years of age. The reason for this change is that some of the camps for the older age groups weren't filling and opening it up to the younger age groups allowed us to get more registrations.

I reasoned that because we split the kids into 3 seperate groups anyway, we could easily create different activities for the older kids to do most of the day so that they wouldn't get bored playing the games for younger kids. And for the most part this is exactly how it worked out.

Part of the day the entire group of kids are together -- snack time, lunch, and doing a few activities. One of these times is during a game that the kids play called "Eventful Journey".

Eventful Journey is like a giant game board and the kids themselves are the game pieces. The purpose of the game is to illustrate how difficult migration is for birds -- how they might run into poor weather, hunters or not be able to find food. The kids are assigned a specific space - which is a game card which tells them what their next move is. The game card might tell them to advance to card number 18 because they had favorable weather, or it might tell them that they got caught up in a storm and have to go back to a previous card. Risk cards come into play if they land on a space already being occupied by other "birds".

The advantage of having all the kids play this particular game is that some of the younger kids don't yet have the reading skills to be able to read the cards -- although they are old enough to understand the lesson of the game. We paired the kids up so that each of the younger kids had an older kid as a partner -- with the older camper reading the instructions on the card.

Earlier this week I was hanging out with the older campers and asked them how they felt about camp merging all the age groups -- did they mind having to share camp with 7, 8 and 9 year olds? I was really surprised when I was told that some of them had what they called "little buddies". The older kids had taken it upon themselves to find a younger kid to take under their wing.

While it's my job to provide humane education for the kids that come through our program, many times I'm the one who is educated. Kids will be compassionate and reach out to others if you just give them the opportunity.

Finding Horse Sense

One of the specialty camps HAWS holds every summer is a horseback riding field trip camp. The field trip of the week is an chance to learn about an animal we don't have at HAWS, and to get to do something many kids don't have an opportunity to experience.

Our first few years we went on trail rides -- but since HAWS really wants the kids to learn something about the animals they interact with, I wasn't entirely satisfied with the fact that we were just getting a ride without taking away knowledge.

A few years ago we were lucky enough to learn about Knollwood Farm in Hartland. Their Riding School Director, Nancy Turner, puts together a wonderful experience for HAWS campers. We spend an afternoon at Knollwood and the kids get a tour of the facility, learn about appropriate behavior around horses, learn how to groom and put on tack, and get a riding lesson.

Some of the things we've learned at Knollwood are: Always keep your hand on the horse when you're walking around them so that they know where you are. Taking care of a horse is a lot of hard work. Riding horses involves muscles you never knew you had -- and they will hurt the next day.

One of the best lessons wasn't officially part of the program. Knollwood has a 34 year old horse living there -- with a life expectancy of 25-30 years, that is a very old horse. I unfortunately don't remember the name of the horse, but I'm impressed with the compassion a business can have for an animal that served for so many years. This geriatric, blind horse is kept comfortable and is obviously loved by employees and students of Knollwood alike. I hope HAWS camper's learned something about compassion through this experience.