Southside Animal Shelter; 1614 Edgwood Ave., 710-2831
www.ssasi.org
Editor’s note: Stuart, the therapy dog of Southsider Voice columnist Fred Shonk, is back at the keyboard. This time he’s writing about his recent experience at Hornet Park Elementary.
It has been a long winter for me as I’m not a big fan of walking or running around in the snow.
My human mom and dad go out a couple of times daily to visit our crazy chicken girls. I am often invited to go out with them. About a month ago on one of those visits I got a gob of snow packed into the open spaces of my right front paw. It was so cold and it hurt. I briefly considered sitting down in the snow to remove the ice and snow with my teeth. I quickly vetoed that plan and ran back to the house using three feet, which I’m not good at. Once inside I quickly took care of my problem. I’ve been enjoying the warmer weather.
A couple of weeks ago Dad and I made our routine trip to Hornet Park Elementary, where children read to us. When we checked in at the office we were told that the librarian. Heather Byland, was absent and a substitute librarian was in the building.
When we are listening to students read great stories, there isn’t much else going on at the library ... sometimes we don’t even see Heather. On this occasion we were about halfway through the one-hour program when a lady walked into the library. I was pretty sure she was the substitute librarian. I also had a feeling that she hadn’t been informed about us being in the library doing our reading program. So she walked in to find a really nice dog and a human sitting in the middle of the room, and she had no clue why.
Dad spoke to her, and she acknowledged my presence. It was then that I became confused. Dad will usually explain about us being a therapy dog team. But he really surprised me because he told the young lady that I was a drug-sniffing dog. He instructed her to place her hands over her head. I was shocked. I had never heard him say anything like that before. She looked a bit confused and somewhat shocked too.
At first I was looking around the room for my friend Wyatt, who really is a drug-sniffing dog. He and his partner, officer Mark Parker, are members of the Beech Grove Police Department, and they do programs at the schools. I though they had slipped in when I had my eyes closed.
Then Dad started laughing about us being a therapy team and that we were doing our reading program. Sometimes he is a hot mess. This is what I have to put up with on a daily basis.
It has been a long winter for me as I’m not a big fan of walking or running around in the snow.
My human mom and dad go out a couple of times daily to visit our crazy chicken girls. I am often invited to go out with them. About a month ago on one of those visits I got a gob of snow packed into the open spaces of my right front paw. It was so cold and it hurt. I briefly considered sitting down in the snow to remove the ice and snow with my teeth. I quickly vetoed that plan and ran back to the house using three feet, which I’m not good at. Once inside I quickly took care of my problem. I’ve been enjoying the warmer weather.
A couple of weeks ago Dad and I made our routine trip to Hornet Park Elementary, where children read to us. When we checked in at the office we were told that the librarian. Heather Byland, was absent and a substitute librarian was in the building.
When we are listening to students read great stories, there isn’t much else going on at the library ... sometimes we don’t even see Heather. On this occasion we were about halfway through the one-hour program when a lady walked into the library. I was pretty sure she was the substitute librarian. I also had a feeling that she hadn’t been informed about us being in the library doing our reading program. So she walked in to find a really nice dog and a human sitting in the middle of the room, and she had no clue why.
Dad spoke to her, and she acknowledged my presence. It was then that I became confused. Dad will usually explain about us being a therapy dog team. But he really surprised me because he told the young lady that I was a drug-sniffing dog. He instructed her to place her hands over her head. I was shocked. I had never heard him say anything like that before. She looked a bit confused and somewhat shocked too.
At first I was looking around the room for my friend Wyatt, who really is a drug-sniffing dog. He and his partner, officer Mark Parker, are members of the Beech Grove Police Department, and they do programs at the schools. I though they had slipped in when I had my eyes closed.
Then Dad started laughing about us being a therapy team and that we were doing our reading program. Sometimes he is a hot mess. This is what I have to put up with on a daily basis.
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