compassion

 I have been very blessed to get to spend time watching and helping my youngest son in his passion. As long as I can remember he has loved animals, all animals. He has raised slugs, stick bugs, and a whole managerie or creatures from large to small. Several years ago he decided to begin volunteering at our local shelter. He was only 12 at the time, so in order for him to volunteer I got to volunteer too. Since then he has fostered over seventy litters of puppies, brought in older dogs for training and rehabilitation work, raised foster kittens and rehomed several rabbits. He averages around one hundred hours per year just at the shelter, and spends countless hours with the fosters and training projects that he brings home. He has the ability to build trusting relationships with the animals in a very short amount of time and does an excellent job handling, training, and caring for them. If all he did was volunteer at the shelter and raise fosters I'd be impressed, but he went looking for more ways to teach others and share his animals. So he found a local retirement home willing to allow him to come in with several animals every other month to visit the residents. He loads up well trained, and groomed fosters, or several of his own show rabbits and brings them in to visit every other month. He also has hauled rabbits, chickens, goats, cats, and dogs to local schools, clubs, and community events to share with others his love for animals and to teach them how to care for their own pets. He enjoys sharing his stories of how he aquired each animal he brings, whether it is a prized show rabbit that he bred himself or a foster that barely made it.

Many of the kittens and puppies that he brings home to foster are too young to be away from their mothers, but for one reason or another have been seperated. He knows that these animals are going to require 24 hour attention and he fixes a kennel area next to his bed and a portable carrier and he keeps them with him all the time. I have seen him cleaning poopy puppies at 3AM, and watched him cuddle each puppy as he bottle feeds them, then get up by 7AM and tend to his farm chores. In my book that is a remarkable child.

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