A few more photos highlighting B-More Dog’s Pit Bulls on Parade (view the first batch on yesterday’s post). By the way, this is a monthly event! For more information, visit their website or Facebook page.
The rest of the photos will be up on Peace, Love, and Fostering’s Facebook page by the end of today (Wednesday). Hope to see some of you at the next parade!
Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of sitting in on the final class of an after school program aimed towards educating kids about humane relationships with animals. Project Mickey, named after a darling puppy that Jasmine’s House took in who passed away, officially kicked off its Pilot Program in April, and the results have been nothing but astounding.
Fifteen 5th grade students from an inner city Baltimore public school participated in the program where twice a week they learned about a wide variety of dog related issues. These kids not only gained knowledge about things like how to safely greet a dog, clicker training, and proper pet care – they also became very familiar with “pit bull” dogs, and the issues surrounding them. Most of these students began the four weeks with a negative image of a pit bull, and left just like the rest of us: with their hearts wrapped around the big square head of pit bull type dogs everywhere.
Project Mickey is one of the most inspiring things I have ever gotten the honor of participating in. While I was only around for the end result, I could still see how much passion, creativity, and intelligence was pouring out of these kids on this topic. They learned to appreciate that dogs have feelings and that it is up to us to keep animals safe and healthy.
Today was the day they worked on their final projects for next week’s presentation. While I don’t want to spoil much for any Jasmine’s House followers who are going to see the presentation next week, I will say that the ideas these children came up with to share what they’ve learned with their classmates absolutely blew me away. Kids are presenting on why dog fighting is bad, how to be safe around dogs, about pit bulls in general and why breed bans are no good, and more. It’s amazing what they’ve learned and what they’ve really seemed to soak up from their experiences.
I’ll hopefully post more about Project Mickey as it evolves, but I can confidently say that Jasmine’s House has set up something magical here. These kids, many for their first time, experienced compassion for animals and will hopefully now be their voice among peers – something that likely never would have happened without the four weeks they spent with the school’s representative, the Jasmine’s House folks, a few ambassadogs, and a lot of great lessons.
In order to grow and help more students each session, Project Mickey needs financial support. If you would like to help this program continue so more children can be reached, please consider donating to the cause today.
Meet adoptable Dahlia.
When my friend Jen asked me about fostering, I immediately hooked her up with Jasmine’s House. A few days later she brought home Dahlia.
Dahlia is an estimated two year old pit bull type dog, and one of the sweetest dogs you’ll ever meet. Jen reports that Dahlia behaves almost perfectly in her home, including being a loose leash walker, house trained, calm, and gets along with her four other dogs. Dahlia has been described to me on multiple occasions as “the perfect dog”. Meeting her last week to take these photos was a joy as she showed me just how loving she can be.
Dahlia not only gets along great with Jen’s four other dogs, but she is a total doll with Jen’s daughter. See for yourself:
Dahlia is an example of a dog that is great with kids. Some dogs may not do as well, but every dog should be evaluated individually on what kind of family would be best for them. One thing is for sure – these two are the cutest pair I’ve seen in a long time!
If you are interested in Miss Dahlia, fill out an application on the Jasmine’s House website.
Today a group of about twenty children, ages 5 – 10 years old, showed up to the shelter. Because of super limited space we’ve had to cut back the number of shelter tours we do, but they had made dog treats and really wanted to look around, so my coworker Nevie obliged. Of course they also asked about meeting a dog. Having faith in my handy little foster dog, I offered Baxter up for the job.
After asking all the kids to please sit still until I tell them it’s okay, I brought Bax out. He loves when we move around the office for whatever reason because it means he gets to say hi to all his staff member friends, and this time was no different in producing his infamous tail wag. The kids of course loved him, seeing how happy he was to be in their presence. They all followed the rules and sat politely as I told them a little about Baxter.
I asked them if they had heard of a pit bull before. Most said yes. I asked if they thought Baxter was a pit bull. Most said yes. I told them that because Baxter was a stray, we aren’t sure what kind he is, and that we can’t put a label on him just because of what he looks like. I asked who liked Baxter. Everyone raised their hands. I even got to drop the “never judge a book by its cover, no matter what they’ve heard in the past” line.
This whole time Baxter had been standing patiently next to me, wobbling from side to side as he wagged enthusiastically. I finally let him go greet the kids, and he calmly walked forward and licked all of their hands one by one. Each one squealed with delight as he sniffed their face and slurped on the palms of their hands. I felt like a proud mom watching him do so well with all the kids!
After all was said and done, I thought, “Huh. Well Bax, we may have just made a little bit of a difference there.” I’m so happy that these and many other young kids are getting exposure the the world outside of stereotypes through Humane Education programs. Experiences like this, no matter how small, are vital to the way they look at animals, pit bull type dogs included. I hope they went home talking about the little black dog with the big square head that they met after school today, and how great he was.
I know it was a brief meeting and we could only do so much, but I’m proud of my little monkey for being such a great advocate, and I can’t believe how far he has come. It was one of those days where you have to sit back and remember to appreciate the small things – like your once very shy foster dog tolerating twenty little ones : )
For more information on adopting Comeback Kid Baxter, click here or email peacelovefoster@gmail.com.
Peace, Love & Fostering 