An Education in Compassion

Several weeks ago you read about Cindy, whose father had given her a kitten as a young child, hoping the feline would fill a void in the girl’s life.  Squeaky the kitten did much more, providing Cindy with a lifelong love of cats that would lead her on a mission many years later when she worked as a high school teacher in a rural Northern California town.

While at work one day, Cindy noticed a young Siamese cat cowering under a portable classroom at the country school where she ran the Health Academy program.  As Cindy approached the cat she saw that the Siamese was guarding the remains of another feline.  Scrawny, scared and apparently feral, Cindy decided to feed the talkative Siamese, hoping to prevent her suffering the same fate as her late companion.

Soon more strays appeared from hiding places under buildings and in shrubs near the tennis courts, eventually rounding out the total number to 12.  The school was a good location for a feral colony since it provided shelter and a food source of garbage and field mice.  Because several of the 42 students in Cindy’s classroom were participating in internships with a local veterinarian, volunteering 160 hours of their time over the course of the school year, Cindy engaged their efforts in saving the cats, who were considered a nuisance by many school officials. Even the janitor joined in by contributing food.

Through their internships the students already knew about trap-neuter-return (TNR) and obtained humane traps from a local rescue organization called H.A.L.O.  Four adults were caught, fixed, and their ears were clipped prior to release.  The vet allowed the interns to witness the surgeries and also provided free shots to the cats.  A litter of kittens and two of the cats were not yet feral so the students found them homes by participating in adoption days at Pet Smart .  

Cindy’s students developed a strong consciousness about strays in their rural area where many people did not consider altering their animals a priority.  Their awareness empowered the students to make a difference.  Not only were their efforts making life better for the cats, the school eventually started a veterinary science class, expanding learning options for other students.

In the meantime, Cindy was wrestling with bureaucracy.  School officials, including Cindy's boss, hoped the cats would starve or disappear if Cindy’s class stopped feeding them, thus eliminating the “problem.”  Cindy did not consider that a humane way to address the issue and did not want the students to view it as a viable option when dealing with strays.  She was warned to cease her efforts and when she did not, a written reprimand was placed in her file.

Cindy and her class nurtured the colony for two years.  Following their graduation, three of Cindy’s students became veterinary technicians.  But Cindy knows that all of her students became better people through compassion in action.

by Elizabeth Sundstrom