Week 2: Day 2

Unfortunately I was not able to attend the shelter this week. I got the stomach bug. I am going to be meeting up with the Volunteer coordinator soon to set up my orientation and get the ball rolling with the photos.

ADD-ON:

This is a photo of Colonel Whiskas. Although he has not been in the shelter for 30 days (When I was there they were cleaning the cages and the area that had most of the older animals in them) I chose to capture a picture of this cat because the one on his tag was not very fitting to his personality, and he is an older cat (7 years). This photo improves the adoption potential because he almost appears to have a smile on his face and his ears are perked up. Colonel Whiskas ID number is 71368.

From the NOVA's Dogs Decoded video there were many interesting facts that I learned. One of the first things I was surprised about was the eye tracking technology that is used to link how closely dogs are in-tune with humans and their emotions and feelings . I did not realize that when humans are expressing their emotions their facial expressions are not symmetrical and that the left side of the face does not express it as same as the right side. No other animal has the same ability to communicate with humans! I feel that these things, and others described in the video do have an impact on the way I view the animals at the shelter. I feel this way, one, because when I walk into a room and look at the animals the noise typically elevates, but not in a scared way. The noise is more of a look at me way, especially with the dogs. When I walk through I also feel as if the barks change tone to a more "Look at me bark" vs. "Help I need something" bark. The second thing it makes me think about is the dogs ability to complete tasks similar to those of a 2 year old child's abilities. This was especially interesting for me because I am a child development major so it helped me to make the connection between two things that I enjoy.