The Adventures of Captain
Jack—Explorator™
February 2019—Episode 14
The act of showing consideration and caring about another’s
distress,
along with a desire to alleviate the distress.
Quote of the Month
“Our task must be to free ourselves...by widening our circle of
compassion
to embrace all living creatures and the whole of nature and its
beauty.”
―Albert Einstein
Recap
from Episode 13: Why did the children run away from
him and scream? Captain Jack called to
them, “Bark-bark. Stop. Wait. Come play with me. Can you help me find my
MawMaw? Bark-bark. Whine-whine. Cry.” He ran after the children, thinking they
would want to play with him and help him. Finally Captain Jack sat down. He was
bewildered. The children had all scattered and had run away, screaming at the
tops of their lungs and looking for their parents or for a safe place to hide. At
first he thought they were playing hide-and-seek, but they weren’t smiling or
laughing. They didn’t look or act like they wanted to play with him. Captain
Jack was totally perplexed. He didn’t know what to think. It was getting dark.
The poor puppy sat down under a bench and decided to rest a bit. Then a big
white pickup truck came circling around the park. It had a kennel in the back
and big letters with pictures of animals on its sides. The letters read “ANIMAL
CARE AND CONTROL.” A large burly man wearing a hat got out of the truck and
started walking toward Captain Jack. The puppy thought to himself Should I
run away or stay safely under the bench? Maybe the man won’t see me. He doesn’t
look like a very kind person.―Albert Einstein
By
the time Captain Jack made his decision, the man
had tossed a cookie to him to get his attention. The puppy was starving, so of
course he ate it. Immediately he started to feel dizzy and weak. He fell over
on his side, and everything went dark. He felt the way he had felt months ago
after the jellyfish had stung him in the ocean. Both then and now, he couldn’t
move at all. He could feel what was happening to him, but he couldn’t move a
muscle. He could feel something being placed around his neck. Then he felt his motionless
body being picked up and tossed onto a hard, cold surface.
What in the world was happening? Captain Jack thought. He couldn’t believe that just one
moment ago, he was in a park wanting to play with the children there. It seemed
as if his whole world had changed within seconds of that. He could smell other
dogs, and he could hear their barking. But he had no idea where he was. Then he
heard the truck’s door slam. He again smelled that familiar odor of gasoline
fumes, just like in the garage where he had been living all alone in the box
before the big windstorm hit and changed his life forever. Captain Jack heard
the deep rumbling of the vehicle’s motor. He knew the truck he was lying in was
moving. But he didn’t know where he was being taken.
The
vehicle stopped after a few minutes, but Captain Jack still couldn’t see outside.
He could hear even more barking. Then he smelled that horrible odor again. He
was beginning to get his balance back when the burly man suddenly opened the
door, picked him up, and carried him into the building covered with graffiti
that Captain Jack had seen earlier. That building was what smelled so bad.
Captain
Jack was horrified when the man stuck him with a needle and then placed him in
a noisy, smelly cage with three other dogs about his size. The scared,
intimidated puppy was still weak and off balance as the other dogs came over
and sniffed him. “I hope they don’t hurt me,” he whined to himself. And he let
out a pitiful, scared whimper.
All
three dogs backed away from Captain Jack since they didn’t know if he would be
nice to them or not. They decided to show him some compassion. Dogs are like that. They’re not usually looking for
conflict. They all just want to get along. Often it’s when humans get involved
and chain dogs outdoors or force them to do things they don’t want to do that
problems happen between dogs.
It
turned out that the other three dogs in the cage with Captain Jack were pretty
nice. The puppy began getting better acquainted with them later in the day once
all the humans had left and things calmed down somewhat. The three dogs
included a little black dog with white paws, a fuzzy brown dog about Captain
Jack’s size, and a medium-sized dog with really bad skin and sores all over her
body.
Captain
Jack wanted to get to know each of their stories and how they got there. But
none of the three wanted to tell a story that night. Each of the four little
dogs crawled into a corner of the smelly cage. They all curled their bodies
around as tightly as they could and gradually fell asleep on the hard, cold
floor.
Morning
came far too soon for the caged dogs, and the humans returned. They squirted
hoses and sprayed smelly cleaner everywhere. One at a time, each dog cage was
cleaned, and that meant that each dog had a chance to go outdoors for a few
precious minutes. Outdoors in the yard, the dogs were able to get better
acquainted.
The
little black dog with white paws was the first to share. He elaborated, “I had
a nice home where people loved me. Then one day they left. I was left all alone
for a long time, and I was very hungry. Then a nice woman came to my home, fed
me, and brought me here. She was caring and compassionate
to me. Sometimes she still comes here to walk me. She always says, ‘Poor little
Midnight (which is what she named me), not many people want black dogs. We’ll
keep trying as hard as we can to find you the perfect home. Don’t be sad,
Midnight. Don’t give up. I won’t give up on you.’ But I haven’t seen her in
quite a while. I really hope she’s okay.”
When
Midnight finished, the dog with bad skin and sores all over her body started to
tell them her story.
But
almost as soon as she started to share with the other dogs, each dog in the
yard was lassoed around the neck with a rope. All the dogs were put back into
those smelly cages. It seemed as if the cleaner used to clean the cages had
done no good at all.
Captain
Jack looked forward to hearing more about the dogs that lived in his cage.
However it was way too noisy in the graffiti-covered, smelly building. All the
dogs ate their breakfast and then took a nap, hoping against hope they would be
in a better place when they awoke.
In the 15th
exciting blog episode about Captain Jack—Explorator™ in March 2019, you’ll learn about
Captain Jack’s new friends and how they manage to escape from the animal
shelter.
Humane Education Point:
Showing compassion
takes effort in that you have to think about someone other than yourself. You
have to pay attention to others to realize when a person or an animal may be in
distress.
When has someone taken the time to show you compassion? Maybe someone showed you compassion when you had just moved into
a new neighborhood, had started attending a new school, had gotten hurt during
a sport event or game, had spent time in a hospital, had been at home sick for
one or more days, had experienced the death of a family member or pet, had
gotten hurt at recess at school, had been bullied by one or more students at
school or on the way to school or in your neighborhood, or had had another
situation that had caused you distress. How did the person show you compassion? How did it make you feel?
Humane Education Follow-Up Activities:
Think of ways you can show compassion to either a human or an animal. Write three ways you
could show compassion. Keep your list
somewhere where you can refer to it often.
Draw a picture illustrating one or more of those ways of
showing compassion. Show someone your
picture, and tell them what it portrays about showing compassion.
You may want to display your list and your picture or
pictures on a bulletin board, closet door, bedroom door, or wall in your
bedroom, with your parent’s permission and help.
Story Discussion Tips:
1)
Did anyone or any animal(s) show
Captain Jack compassion in this
month’s story? How?
2)
How do you think Captain Jack
felt when he was first placed into the smelly cage in the shelter with three
other dogs he didn’t know? Why did he feel that way?
3)
What could the burly man have
done differently when he first placed Captain Jack in the cage with the three
other dogs? If he had done something different, do you think Captain Jack
would’ve reacted differently? Do you think the other three dogs might have
reacted differently as well?
4)
What would you have done if you had
been the human in this story?
5)
Do you have someone who has
shown you compassion? What did that
person say or do to show you compassion? How
did what the person said and/or did make you feel? Did it make you feel any
better? Any worse?
©2017
Heddie Wittlin-Leger
Our
Nonprofit of the Month
Russell Rescue, Inc.
(RRI) is a network of volunteers dedicated to placing unwanted or abandoned
Jack Russells into permanent homes. RRI arranges for emergency rescues
throughout the country, and gathers information designed to match appropriate
permanent and temporary homes. It is funded by donations and
supported by Jack Russell Terrier lovers and volunteers throughout the world.
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| Sponsored by |
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| Thank You Credit |
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| Member of APDT |
