Field Trip to the Animal Shelter

Kevin has been working at the local animal shelter.  He comes home every day with stories of the pets that are there.  We are such a huge animal loving family that the kids had to go meet these animals.

So yesterday we took a little field trip to the shelter.  There were so many animals, especially dogs, that were there.  We walked around to the kennels as Kevin told us about the animals and why they were there.  It was so sad. 

I kept a hold of Matty the whole time.  We had debated on even taking him because of how loud the animals could get.  The last thing we wanted was for him to stim so bad he would go into a seizure.  Matty has never had a confirmed seizure.  We think he had a petit mal in speech therapy in 2nd grade but he never repeated the incident so we didn’t pursue it.  Fragile X kids are prone to them so we just watch him.  We once heard that if they didn’t get them by the time they were 9 then they probably wouldn’t.  Well, I’ve met quite a few on the listserv that had puberty set off their kid’s seizures.  One woman had a son start his in his 20’s.  So we stay watchful. 

There was a poor puppy that had porcupine quills in him that they couldn’t get out yet.  There was a 3 legged dog that just finally got to go hang out with the other pups.  One dog looked like Peetie on Little Rascals.  There were soo many sweet pit bulls.  They are such fantastic dogs and it is sad the stigma they get.  Not only does it result in people being afraid of them but it also results in people getting them because they are a big bad dog.  Then they realize that they aren’t as big and bad as they thought they were and sent them to the shelter. 

One dog was a giant bullmastiff.  This thing was huge. It looked like a horse.  It had nipped a little girl and they county had to remove it from it’s home until the case went to court.  The owner visits him all the time.  The court hearing is Tuesday and the shelter plans to tell the court that the dog needs returned to its owner.  This pup was only protecting himself and is not unsocialized and vicious.

There were also 3 llamas that are there.  They were removed from a very neglectful farm.  The kids thought they were awesome until the llamas peeled their ears back.  They had heard the stories of them spitting so they were done. 

I was happy to see that their weren’t a whole bunch of cats but there were two cats that had a little of kittens.  One kitty didn’t have an eye.  We have no clue why that was.  Matty seemed to like the cat room better than the puppies.  I think it was because it was much quieter and less hectic.

After the cat room was done Matt was ready to go.  Matt and I went out to the van while Kevin and the rest of the kids wrapped up their tour.

When we got home we learned that the dogs were a much bigger hit with Matt than we had thought.  I guess he just needed time to process the chaos.  He kept telling us over and over about the dogs and the puppies.  It was pretty cute. 

Kevin has loved the time there so much that after he leaves he plans to volunteer there on some weekends and probably take the kids, except Matt.  It’s a very good thing to help out with :)