Homeless animals aid young readers
Shelter dogs, cats, children come together in new reading program
Smokey Bear, a mixed-breed stray dog, was fully engaged as 8-year-old Moises Ruiz read aloud from Dav Pilkey’s Dog Man 3: A Tale of Two Kitties, a delightfully daffy entry in a popular children’s book series.
Dog Man — half-canine, half-human — had to deal with a pair of problematic cats in the story. Moises added theatrical touches as he read the dialogue to Smokey Bear. He even improvised a few lines of his own. Nearby, 13-year-old Joseph Gonzalez was reading from Mary Nethery’s The Famous Nini: A Mostly True Story of How a Plain White Cat Became a Star— which details the celebrity-driven rise of a plain Viennese kitty who hangs out in a cafe. Oddly enough, Joseph, a student at the Monte del Sol Charter School, was reading the cat tale to Nova, a mixed-breed dog, who showed his appreciation by licking Joseph’s hand.
“I’ve never seen him so excited about reading,” said Joseph’s mother, Monica Gonzales. “It helps him explore options besides playing video games and television.”
That’s one of two main goals of the new outreach reading program at the Santa Fe Animal Shelter & Humane Society, called Wags and Words, which gives children the chance to read to homeless animals at the facility.
“The reading practice is good for improving their skills,” said Jennifer Steketee, executive director of the shelter, which houses about 200 animals. “For the kids, it’s less stressful than having to read to someone who may be more critical than dogs and cats.”
For the shelter animals, the encounters with children allow for an entertaining interaction and a needed break from hours of sitting in a pen, waiting for a human to show some interest, Steketee said.
Shelters around the country, including in Maryland, Missouri and Pennsylvania, have initiated similar reading-to-animals programs.
Nethery, a Santa Fe native, helped start Wags and Words after a recent visit to the Santa Fe shelter. She said it can teach kids responsibility and how to care for an animal.
“For the animals, I know it gives them comfort, allows them to interact with children and really helps them to settle down,” Nethery said. “It gives them happiness, it gives them attention, it gives them comfort.
“And,” she added, “it could help them find a forever home.”