Kindness Tickets

Part of humane education is teaching children respect and empathy for all living things, including people.  While we encourage kids to be respectful of each other, our curriculum has been focused on teaching children about animals.

This year HAWS started a new program at our camps called Kindness Tickets.  The first day of camp each camper is given 10 tickets and they are asked to write their names on the tickets.  They are encouraged to give the tickets to each other for any acts of kindness they might observe their fellow campers performing.  Counselors are also encouraged to hand out tickets. 

Several times throughout the week Kindness Tickets are counted and campers with the most tickets are rewarded.  Their own tickets don't count towards the total, nor can they count more than two tickets collected from the same person.  This prevents kids from swapping tickets in an effort to win.  Once they've been awarded a prize the winner's tickets are disposed of and they start without any, although they can win a second time. 

Initially our rewards were items from a prize box, but the enthusiasm for the program was lukewarm.   Then the dog trainer in me thought about what would really motivate the kids.  The answer is time with animals -- which is why the kids attend camp at an animal shelter to begin with.  Kindness ticket winners get 15 minutes with the animal of their choice with the option to ask a friend to share their animal interaction. 

Campers have told me that they really like the program.  One girl told me that at the beginning of the week she made an effort to be nice because she wanted to earn enough tickets to win, but by the end of the week she was being nice because it seemed like the right thing to do.    Maybe coming to Kids 'N Critters Day Camp will help kids learn to be kind not only to animals, but to each other. 

Ask the Dog

It's Dog Bite Prevention week, although I personally believe that we should prevent dog bites every week throughout the year. 

The purpose of Dog Bite Prevention week is to educate people so that dog bites can be prevented.  I've been a humane educator for 9 years, and have gone through a lot of educational materials with this goal in mind.  The information I give children is constantly evolving as I try to decide what is most important.  I try to keep in mind that too much material will cause the message to be lost, and less is sometimes more.

A common aspect of most dog safety presentations is to ask the owner of the dog if a child want's to approach and pet the dog.  This is a really great habit for both children and adults to get into.  Some dogs are not comfortable with strangers and some are nervous around children.  Asking the owner first allows the owner to keep the dog safe if this is the case. 

Recently I've started to incorporate a new part to my presentation.  It's fantastic to ask the owner, but there's someone else who should be asked before a child pets a dog, the dog himself.  While a dog can't respond with a verbal "yes" or "no", it's true that actions speak louder than words.  I tell children that they should be standing several feet from the dog and owner, and after the owner has given permission they should pat their legs and greet the dog.  If the dog wants to say "hi" he will come to them.  If he doesn't he may stay where he is or walk away from the child.  Either way he's letting the child know if he wants to be petted or just isn't in the mood.

One of the things I like about this is that many times I've seen children approach the dog, start to pet, and ask all at the same time.  By telling them to allow the dog to come to them they truly have to wait for permission before they can pet the dog.  And it's always safer to let a dog come to you, rather than invade the space of a dog who may feel insecure or anxious about being unable to avoid the interaction. 

The other thing I like about this practice is that it allows the dog a choice.  Part of humane education is to help children develop empathy for living creatures.  Asking the dog shows them that dogs have feelings and preferences just like people, and will show children the feelings of others are important. 

Compassion and Kids

Wade might not be the cutest dog at HAWS.  And he certainly isn't the most playful.  But despite his disability, or perhaps because of it, he has captured the hearts of several of our Critter Club members. 

At last nights club meeting the middle school aged members spent part of their time at HAWS training some of the shelter dogs.  Like many shelters, HAWS has a large number of ill-mannered adolescent aged dogs that benefit from training to make their adoption more likely.  The kids greatly enjoyed working with the dogs during the training session. 

The last half hour of the meeting the kids were allowed to socialize the animal of their choice.  Out of all the animals they could have chosen, Jennifer and Caitlin were excited to be able to spend some time with Wayde - an 8 year old blind terrier mix.  Expressing their love for him and how wonderful they think he is, the girls quickly brought him into an interview room and spent the next 30 minutes telling him how wonderful he is, and giving him non-stop petting. 

One of HAWS goals in our education program is to instill empathy for all living creatures.  I don't know if the programs are working, or if we just happy to be attracting kids who are already outstanding animal ambassadors to our programs.  Either way, it makes me happy to see young people be able to appreciate an animal who isn't young, cute and energetic.  It's spending time with kids like this that make my job truly worthwhile.   

Bucky Buckerman

The other day I was showing my Lad Lake students a PowerPoint on animal emotions and I started out talking about humane emotions and facial expressions. I showed the Dr. Paul Ekman photos depicting universal facial expressins for different emotons.

As I started to move on to talk about animal emotions one of the boys raised his hand and with a big smile asked; "Can we call the one on the bottom in the middle 'Bucky Buckerman'?"

I attempted to use his inappropriate attempt at humor to instill some empathy. "That's not very nice to make fun of his appearance," I said. "He can't help how he looks."

"Yes he can," the boy replied, "he can get braces."

"Maybe he can't afford braces, or maybe there's another reason he can't get them," I said.

At that point one of the other boys asked when these photos were taken, and I said I thought maybe the late 60s or early 70s. "Oh, no. You're right," he said. "Back then they couldn't have afforded it."

I'm not sure if they got the message I was trying to send, but I was amused.

PETS Project Graduation

Back in December I posted about the difficulties I was having with my current semester of Lad Lake students. The PETS program is designed to have boys from the school for at-risk kids learn about and train shelter dogs with the goal of instilling empathy, teamwork, patience and inspire them to be interested in learning.

The first semester of the school year just ended and I'm pleased at how things really turned around for the program. The boys became very excited to work with the dogs and train them to do new things, and I saw many of the boys become more respectful both towards myself and the other students, and they were enthusiastic about the learning portion of the program.

The last day of the semester the boys gave me notes they'd put together thanking me for allowing them to particpate in the program. One of the boys was grateful that he'd learned about puppy mills and promised never to get a dog from one. One complimented me on being a great trainer and teacher. Another drew pictures of myself and my dog. Getting thanks from the kids I work with really makes my job worthwhile, and I always hope that I've made an impact even in a small way on their lives.

One of the gifts I give to the boys on completion of the semester is a video that I put together from footage shot over the course of the semester of their work with the dogs. The latest video is below.

Critter Club Starts Again!

Last spring I wrote a post about a new program we started for middle school kids called "Critter Club". The program was a huge success -- the kids truly enjoyed coming on Saturday mornings to clean cages, scrub litter boxes and fold laundry. I think their parents were a little jealous they don't enjoy doing similar chores at home!

They also enjoyed the educational component to the program where they came to HAWS once a week for an educational program and had opportunities to spend time with HAWS adoptable animals. Many of the kids were invited back to become regular volunteers with their parents, despite the fact they were younger than 13, since they had shown a tremendous amount of responsibility, maturity and committment to HAWS.

Critter Club Fall 2011 started a few weeks ago. We have a total of 16 kids in this semester's program. Some participated in Critter Club last spring, and many are familiar to me since they've attended our camps in the past. We've picked up several new faces -- kids who hadn't been involved in any previous educational programs.

So far things are going extremely well. The club members have been trained in cat cuddling and small animal socialization, and will be trained as dog walkers next week. We plan to have them create a project to help HAWS during this semester's program, and they'll have a chance to visit a Llama farm and help care for the Llamas in November.

One of the best parts about the program is that I get to hold conversations with the kids and hear their thoughts. One of the kids told me last night about a dog owned by a relative. It upsets her that the dog is crated for most of the day and night, gets yelled at a lot and doesn't have access to water except for certain times of the day. These relatives have kids - I suggested she encourage this family to send their kids to HAWS Kids 'N Critters Day Camp because maybe we could help them develop empathy and learn how to be responsibile dog owners.

While it's a tough lesson for a kid to learn that not everyone is kind to their pets, I'm heartened that this club member is concerned, has empathy for the dog, and wants to make a difference. Hopefully HAWS programs will allow her to continue to feel this way.

Learn more about Critter Club and how your child can apply!

A Really Wonderful Book

I've been giving a lot of thought to the "Smooch your Pooch" book and the blog post I did about it last month.

There are a lot of really great books for children that do a wonderful job helping children develop respect and empathy for pets, and learn how to appropriately interact with them.

Once of my favorites is a book called "Libby and the Cat" by Yetti Frenkel. The front cover illustration shows a little girl about to step on the tail of her cat. While this would make the book appear to be a poor choice as an appropriate pet friendly story for children, trust me when I say the book is wonderful. I love it so much that I gave it as a gift to my young nephew, and often read it on my visits to pre-school classrooms.

The story is about 3 year old Libby Bess who teases the family cat. She steps on his tail, dresses him up in hats, pushes him in a stroller, and sneaks up on him and scares him -- among other things.

One day she realizes that she doesn't like it when people force her to do things she doesn't want to do, and realizes that the cat probably doesn't either. At that point she starts to do things for the cat that she thinks he most likely enjoys -- likely playing with him with a catnip mouse string toy.

What's so wonderful about this book is that I think kids really can relate to this. Teasing other kids and animals can give children a sense of power that they might not be able to get any other way -- it can make them feel good. But realizing that others have feelings and our behavior can impact the emotions of others should be part of growing up to be an emotionally healthy person -- it should be the goal of any parent for their child. And this book can be a tool to help children with this important part of their development.

New Semester, New Start

With the new school year I start my semester-long project with a group of boys from Lad Lake -- a non-profit organization that provides services to at-risk youth. Twice a week five boys from their Day Education Program come to HAWS to learn about dog behavior, training and other topics and actually do some hands on work with our adoptable dogs.

The goal is that they will develop empathy for others, learn patience, and get motivated for academics back at school.

The boys had their first two visits to HAWS this week. The Monday their visit consisted of an orientation to HAWS. They also got to meet Niya -- one of HAWS adoptables.

On Wednesday they watched a PowerPoint presentation on clicker training, had an opportunity to practice their clicker timing with an exercise, and were able to clicker train Mystic to put his toys away.

This is a trick I've worked with Mystic on a few times, but never seem to find the time to actually take it to the next level. The completed trick consists of dog toys scattered around the room -- the dog picks up each toy one at a time and deposits it into a box. By Wednesday's session with Lad Lake I had Mystic to the point where he could pick up a toy a few feet from the box and drop it in most of the time.

At Wednesday's session I warmed Mystic up by familiarizing him with a new box and getting him somewhat consistent with picking up a toy I'd dropped on the floor and putting it into a cardboard box. Then each boy took his turn with the clicker while I gave suggestions as far as when they should click.

The boys did great, however Mystic had a very difficult time when I placed two toys on the floor. He loves carrying around multiple soft toys in his mouth at the same time (his record is 5 at once!) and he just didn't have it in him to drop one toy and leave it behind before he picked up the second. With a little brainstorming the boys and I decided that once he had deposited one toy I would throw a second toy away from the box. This seemed to work better for him.

The Lad Lake boys may be very new at this, but they have excellent timing, and seemed to understand at one point that Mystic wasn't misbehaving, but was a little stressed out. I think this is going to be a wonderful semester.

They're Heeeere!

Summer doesn't start on June 21 as the calendar tells us. It doesn't start after Memorial Day. It doesn't start when the public pools first open. Here at HAWS we know summer has started when our first session of Kid's N Critters Day Camp begins.

The relative quiet of HAWS Activity Room outside my office was shattered on Monday when 28 kids between the ages of 7 and 9 descended to have fun and learn about animals. This week consisted of two 2-day camps -- we had 7-9 year olds on Monday and Tuesday, and 10-12 year olds on Wednesday and Thursday.

Our camps run from the middle of June through the middle of August. Five of the sessions are 2-days, and 6 are full weeks. Our goal is to introduce the kids to animals they may not be familiar with, teach them appropriate behavior around animals, get them thinking about what being responsible for a pet entails, educate them about issues common in animal sheltering and rescue, and create empathy and respect for all living things.

The kids who came on Monday and Tuesday had a wonderful time -- as you can see by the photos. They met the 4 week old puppies one of our employees is fostering until they are old enough to go up for adoption. Great socialization for the puppies, and a good lession for the kids about being quiet and calm so that the puppies wouldn't become afraid of them.

They learned about bottle feeding orphaned kittens, held a snake, and met a rabbit named Hop-A-Long and a guinea pig named Ella.

Wow -- What a Week!

Last week was extremely busy.

It started on Monday with a 4-day mini-camp for children sent by an organization that works with families affected by domestic abuse. Our hope was that exposing the children to animals, teaching them ways to positively interact and communicate with them, and hopefully instilling empathy towards them we could help the children develop a way to overcome the damage they have experienced in their homes. There are very strong ties to how humans relate to animals and how that carries over in their social interactions with other people.

This was the second year we've done this particular program. Last year's group consisted of 5 children and they initially were afraid of the animals, lacked confidence, but were fairly well behaved. I realized that the groups would not be the same, but I would be lying if I said I was prepared for the behavior of the children last week.

Because we have to protect the identity of the children I have changed all of their names. Last Monday I met Keira -- 10 and a half years old, and her brothers 9-year old Terrell and 7 year old Taye. We also had brothers Jermaine -- age 8, and Jamal, aged 6. Finally there was 10 year old Andrew.

The week went something like this:

Monday
9am - the children get off the van transporting them and come into our Activity Room. Initially they are quiet while I get them name tags, introduce myself and my assistant and explain what we were going to do during the week. We talk about how to properly meet a dog, I bring out Mystic and several dogs from the back. So far so good.

10:30am. We have just finished a snack. The children start running around the room and playing tag. Knowing that kids have energy they need to expend and because the weather was so cold and damp outside I decide to let them.

10:45am. I decide to move on to the next activity and call for the children to come and sit down. They ignore me. I approach several of the kids and directly ask them to go sit down. They do so. As I'm approaching the other children the two who were sitting get up and start running around again. I continue to request that they stop their horseplay and sit on the floor. They continue to ignore me.

11:00am. We finally get the children sitting and start an activity. They pay attention for about 2 minutes before they start talking amongst themselves. One of the kids shoves one of the other kids. That kid hits in retaliation. I tell them both that is inappropriate behavior. We continue on with the activity with only some of the kids paying attention some of the time.

After lunch. I put in a video for the kids to watch and tell them they need to be quiet for 45 minutes. They ignore me and get up and run around. I get them back sitting down and then others get up and run around. The two littlest, Taye and Jamal, start climbing on the tables we have stored in racks. I tell them several times that they cannot climb on the tables and to get down. After the third time I put both of them in seperate corners for time outs.

In the meantime two of the other kids are hitting and kicking each other. I get them apart and put them in time-outs in two other corners. One of the kids starts to kick his foot against the wall. I tell him he just earned another minute in time out for that. Jamal gets up before his time out is over and I replace him and tell him his time-out starts from the beginning.

Tuesday
I was greatly relieved to see my assistant come back to work as I was terrified that she would call in sick for the rest of the week.

The children come into the activity room at 9am and immediately start running around and chasing each other. Taye and Jamal climb on the tables and I put both of them into time-outs. After 15 minutes I'm able to get the kids calmed down and sitting and quiet so that I can bring out animals.

Tuesday goes much like Monday with many times outs and a lot of hitting, kicking and shoving on the part of the children. Near the end of the day Andrew and Jermaine start to argue and I can see it escalating. They are tense with fists clenched, standing about a foot from each other making direct eye contact. I make my way over there, but am too late to prevent them from beginning a phyical fight. I step in between them and push them away from each other.

At this point it is almost time for the children to leave. Earlier in the day the children had asked permission to take off their shoes, and I had given it. I now ask the children to get their shoes on before they walk outside to get on the van. Some of the children put on their shoes. Others are busy horsing around with each other and don't do so until I repeatedly approach them and tell them they need to do so. Andrew, however, refuses to put his shoes on.

The rest of the children are ready to go, and I tell my assistant to escort them out to the van. I ask Andrew several times to put on his shoes, and he refuses. I get his shoes, hold them out to him and tell him he cannot go outside in his stocking feet and he needs to put his shoes on. He knocks the shoes out of my hands. I threaten to call his mother. He says he doesn't care. I go and get my phone and start to dial. He puts on his shoes.

Andrew and I walk out to the van, his whole body stiff and a scowl on his face. I see that he is safely on the van and I go back inside.

Wednesday
Andrew is not with the children when they arrive and they tell me that he was "expelled" because he started a fight on the bus. I later find out that the real story was that he and Jermaine started to argue again on the bus and Andrew and Jermaine started to hit each other. Subsequently the other children joined in -- taking Jermaine's side, and started to hit Andrew.

Most of Wednesday is better than Monday or Tuesday. The kids are listening better and Taye and Jamal only get a few time-outs.

Earlier in the week Keira had expressed horror at the fact that we spay and neuter animals. She claimed that we were "mean to take away their natural freedoms". I had tried to explain to her over-population and why we do it, but she was unconvinced.

I bring out the "Cats, Cats and More Cats" activity. Some of the children were impressed with how many kittens can be produced in one year from one female cat, and I hope I made an impact on them. I note that Keira is paying attention and I think she is starting to get the message.

Mid-afternoon I decide the children should go outside to play and ask that they get their shoes on. All but Terrell get their shoes on. I see Taye shove his brother, and I head over there to tell him he needs to go into a time-out. Before I get there Terrell retaliates by knocking him down, grabbing him by the leg and dragging him outside. I see that Taye's shirt is lifting up and his skin is being dragged across asphalt. I drag Terrell inside and tell my assistant to stay outside with the other kids while I deal with Terrell.

I tell Terrell he needs to sit in a time-out for 5 minutes. He objects saying that Taye started it by shoving him. I tell him I saw Taye do that and that before he dragged Taye I had planned to take care of it -- that it's not his job to punish Taye -- as the adult it's my job to deal with it. Again I tell Terrell to sit down for a 5-minute time-out. Terrell grabs a folding metal chair and throws it across the room and then kicks the chair rack. I again tell him to sit down. He refuses.

I call Terrell's mother and explain what is going on. I hand the phone to Terrell and he says nothing for a few minutes -- I hear the muffled sounds of his mother before he hands the phone back to me. Terrell's mother tells me to call her again if I have any other problems with him, and she will come get him. I don't have any other problems with Terrell for the rest of the day.

I am amazed when guest speakers come in with their turtles and talk about them and what kinds of pets they make. The children are for the most part very attentive, quiet and interested. They follow directions. Taye is tired and leans against me as he listens. I bring my arm around his little body and am amazed at how sweet he is being.

That same afternoon I have a chance to talk to Keira again. She brings up the fact that spaying and neutering is mean, so I ask her why she thinks so when animals have so many unwanted babies. Keira tells me that "all you have to do is keep them apart". I explain that it's not that simple -- pet owners aren't always responsible enough to do that. I talk about all the diseases that can be prevented by spay and neuter and how the surgery can make pets live longer. I hope that she has absorbed some of this and will eventually understand.

Thursday
This is our last day of the program, but only Andrew, Terrell and Taye show up. Keira, Jermaine and Jamal had other plans. I breathe a sigh of relief -- three children will be much easier than 5 or 6!

It turns out to actually be a very fun day. The kids are for the most part very well behaved and listen to directions. At one point I have to prepare lunch and ask my assistant to take the kids out to play. Taye begs to stay with me, but I tell him he has to go outside. He bursts into tears and clings to me leg. It is very sweet -- despite all the time-outs Taye has formed a bond with me.

Terrell also seems to have formed a bond with me. He begs to come back on Friday. When I tell him we will be having an Open-House that day and it is for adults he says that he could help me with it. He asks several times

After reading the above you might think that I had wasted a week with these ill-behaved children.

Unfortunately these kids are a product of what they see in their home. Frustration tolerance does not exist and frustration is dealt with by acting out. Conflict is resolved though hitting, shoving and kicking.

Though it was extremely difficult and challanging to work with these kids, I saw so much potential in them. So far I've mostly reported the negative, but I really saw them express a lot of empathy and caring.

Andrew in particular seemed to want to care for the other kids when their feelings were hurt. If one of the other children were crying Andrew would go over, put his arm around the child and try to comfort himm.

At one point I also saw him get very distressed when he saw a picture of a cat. When I asked him why he told me that it looked like a cat he used to have that had died. Earlier one of his relatives told me that Andrew had seen his father abuse the family pets and that Andrew tried to save them by releasing them outside. It made me wonder if Andrew had seen his father kill the cat he was upset about.

Keira, while misguided about spay and neuter, was still concerned about how the animals were impacted by the procedure.

Terrell, despite his temper tantrum and belligerence, had an extremely soft side to him. When I think of Terrell I think of him sitting by Mystics side, looking at him with reverence and slowly petting him. He would do this for many minutes on end, and it would be difficult to get him away from Mystic to go on to other activities.

Taye also had a very soft side to him. At one point we brought out 3-week old kittens. All of the children were very quiet and respectful of these fragile babies. I remember Taye cuddling a very small kitten in his shirt while gently petting it.

I got to know Jermaine and Jamal quite a bit better than the other children (other than Andrew) since they were there the last day and there were only three children. Jermaine had a good sense of humor and a wonderful smile that could light up a room. His favorite animal was a rabbit named Hop-a-Long.

Jamal told me that he was afraid of animals when he first came to HAWS because he was afraid they would scratch and bite him, but he isn't afraid any more.

It is my belief that despite the turmoil, chaos and violence in their lives the children can overcome it. I hope that their experience at HAWS will make a difference in how they develop as people. All of the children will be offered a scholarship to attend our summer camp. I hope they can come -- not only because I truly would like to see them again, but because I believe that continued exposure to animals and humane education will help them to grow as human beings.


The drawings were done by the children on the last day. Andrew drew a picture of me walking Mystic. Jermaine's picture was a thank you note, and he references Hop-a-long -- the rabbit he enjoyed spending time with. And the last picture was done by Jamal -- that's a portrait of Mystic and myself.

HAWS is invested in changing the lives of children through their experiences with animals. As a non-profit it can be a challange to find funding for such programs, and we truly appreciate money donated for our education programs. Go to our camp sponsor page to find out how to make a financial contribution that will allow us to give children such as Keira, Terrell, Taye, Jermain, Jamal and Andrew a camp scholarship.

An Exercise in Critical Thinking

On Friday evening I was reading the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and found a very interesting column by Jim Stingl. It was entitled A Tough Break in Some Tough Times and was about a woman named Barbara Smith who adopted a dog from the Wisconsin Humane Society. A few months later the Pomeranian was accidentally dropped, resulting in both front legs being broken. The owner discovered it would cost thousands of dollars for veterinary care. Not being able to afford that she surrendered the dog back to the Wisconsin Humane Society.

A few weeks later Smith contacted the Wisconsin Humane Society and wanted the dog back. The Humane Society had spent $4,000 for veterinary care at that point, and told the woman that she would have to reimburse the cost of medical care already spent, and also be able to cover future medical expenses. Not being able to afford the full amount, the woman offered to pay in installments - which the Humane Society refused. Stingl writes at the end of the article; "It's unfair, Smith said, that someone else will be able to purchase the dog but won't have to pay for its medical bills."

As an animal shelter employee this was obviously a very interesting column for me to read. I knew immediately what my opinion was, but I also thought this could be a very good educational tool.

Yesterday I visited Saratoga Elementary School in Waukesha for my weekly Monday after-school program with a group of about 15 children between grades 3 and 6. I read the article to them out loud, and without giving them my opinion I posed the question to the children: "Should Barbara Smith be given her dog back without paying for the medical expenses?"

I fully expected that they would identify with the pain of losing a pet and would side with Barabara Smith. Therefore I was floored when the first response given by Lexus was "no". She said that not everyone can have vet care for free, and this woman shouldn't either.

The next child I called on was Savannah. She said that the woman should only have to pay for half the expenses because it was an accident.

Shaylynn's opinion was that if you can't pay for surgery, then you can't care for the dog properly and the dog would be in pain and so the dog was better off at the Humane Society.

Sara felt that if she can't pay for these medical expenses then how will she be able to pay for other expenses the dog will have?

Tiara and Alexis both agreed that it wouldn't be fair to other pet owners who have to pay for their pets veterinary care if this woman got it for free. However Alexis also felt sorry for her because she's a single mom and can't afford to pay for it.

I was very proud of these kids for a number of reasons. They felt compassion for both the dog and the previous owner -- teaching compassion and empathy is a big part of what HAWS educational program attempts to accomplish. However they also realize that having a pet is a huge responsibility and that if you can't meet the responsibility the pet may be better off with someone who can provide for it.

I would like to think that my weekly visits to Saratoga have had a positive impact on these kids.

Cats, Cats and More Cats

Two fridays a month I spend time with some of the kids in the after-school program at Blair Elementary School in Waukesha. I'm known as "The Humane Society Lady" who sets up fun games for the kids to play and brings all sorts of cool animals for them to meet.

The games are always animal related, and usually have a lesson. This week we did an activity that was meant to teach the kids what can happen when a cat isn't spayed. You can see in the photo that there are sheets of paper with photos attached. Each sheet represents one offspring or descendent of the original cat, and their offspring within a 15 month period of time.

Of course this week I brought a cat for the children to meet. Tony was recommended by the staff as being outgoing and probably a good choice to take to the school. But as so often happens when working with children, and when working with animals things don't always go as planned.

I had the kids sit in a circle and put Tony the cat in the middle. He jumped out. I went and retrieved him and put him back in the circle. He jumped out again -- this time hiding under a book cart.

I decided to make the best out of a disappointing situation by asking the kids why they thought Tony kept leaving the circle. The kids came up with some very thoughtful answers; he was afraid of the kids, the kids were being too noisy and frightening him, it was a new environment and he wanted to explore and he wanted to go over and look out the window (which he did the first time he left).

Ultimately I committed kitty torture by holding Tony in my arms and allowing each of the kids to spend a few seconds petting him. It certainly wasn't the experience I was looking for - a calm cat walking around the circle and reveling in the joy of the kids petting him. But in many ways it turned out better than I could have hoped; Tony gave me an opportunity to get the kids to think about his feelings.

Humane Education

When I first tell people that I am a Humane Educator at HAWS, many don't really understand what it is I do. I believe some of them initially think I care for animals; cleaning cages, feeding, etc. Because I'm also a Certified Pet Dog Trainer some people think I work with the dogs in that capacity. In reality I do neither of those things as part of my job description, although there have been times where I have done both of those things as a part of my job.

To confuse the issue more is the fact that there really isn't a definitive role that all Humane Educators play. Most Humane Educators work at animal shelters, and I believe that most of their focus is on the education of children. Because animal shelters have limited funding and tight budgets many Humane Educators are volunteers, or do education as a part-time job, or in addition to other duties.

Humane Education, as far as I'm concerned, is about helping people find a connection with the animals we share the world with. If we can find empathy, understanding and a relationship with animals, we are more likely to treat them humanely and responsibly. HAWS ultimate goal is to help people make better choices before they bring their pets home, and give them knowledge and a relationship so that they are likely to keep their pets. This translates in fewer animals being surrendered to our shelter -- our goal is actually to educate ourselves out of jobs.

When I first took this job almost 5 years ago the focus was on the education of children. While I still do a lot of interactions with kids, we have also transitioned to the education adults. Some of the programs that I run here (with the help of fantastic education committee members, volunteers and fellow staff!) are summer and winter camps for kids, tours for scout troops, visits to schools and daycare centers, adult education seminars and speeches on a variety of topics at businesses or organizations. (For more information about our education department visit our Humane Education page)

My job is at times a lot of work. Most of the time it's a lot of fun. I get to spend time with animals, and share my passion with my fellow humans of all ages. What could be better? My hope is that this blog will allow me to share the experiences I have and some of the wonderful people I get to meet when I'm doing my job.