Thursday, May 29, 2014

Cletus and the 5th Grade

For the last few years Mrs. DeShong's 5th grade class at Woodside Elementary in Sussex has taken advantage of HAWS' Teacher's Pet program and fostered one of our Guinea Pigs.   This year's chosen guinea pig was Cletus. 

Cletus started his school year in September, and bonded with the kids pretty closely.  I went to pick him up over Winter Break, and some of the kids were virtually in tears at the thought that they wouldn't get to see him for two weeks.  Each of the students had to say goodbye before I left the room with Cletus.

Since none of the parents of the students in Cletus' class wanted to adopt him, the kids made a huge effort to find a home for him on their own, rather than have him returned to HAWS and be in limbo as he waited for an adopter to fall in love with him.  This is from the email that Mrs. DeShong sent me in early May;  "Just wanting to let you know we have launched a school wide (including posters, visitations and slideshow) to find Cletus a forever home. My students are so involved in this!"

 The campaign the kids put together worked, and the mother of a student in a different classroom contacted us and wanted to adopt Cletus for her son.  The boy was so thrilled to have adopted him that we were told he teared up when he found out Cletus was going home with him.

It's wonderful to know that the Teacher's Pet program was successful in not only teaching students about being responsible pet owners, but also helping them learn to love animals and going above and beyond to do the right thing for an animal you love.  Enjoy your forever home, Cletus

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