Not Again! Farm

by CrimsonNinjaGirl

If you have never been inside a medium or maximum security prison, you just cannot imagine what it feels like to have a 12 foot gate topped with razor wire slam shut behind you. I was ok through the first one. The second gate slamming automatically behind me gave me what can best be described as claustrophobia. By the time we went through the third gate, I had pretty well adjusted.

It truly is an unsettling feeling to be locked in. I didn’t really think it would bother me and so that feeling of being trapped caught me off guard. Then again, I don’t know why I would think that it wouldn’t. I am one of those people who hates to have the windows shut and prefers the doors open. When I was a kid, I don’t think we even had a key to our house and moving into the city, I remember having a really hard time with locking the doors when I was home. I felt, and still feel to some extent trapped.

So I was lucky, my stay in prison was just an hour and I was released through the same automatic gates. I have been asked to teach a class in grooming to a select few prisoners. They have been participating in a program through PenPals that brings in unadoptable dogs to be trained and socialized. The prisoners work with them in teams and from what I saw today, they do a great job.

I will be teaching basic grooming skills for an hour a week for about 10 weeks. This is not directly through PenPals but is a vocational program that teaches the inmates a skill that they can take with them when they are released. The guys are nice, polite and very interested in the animals, in the business and asked the kind of questions that I would have expected from a college class on the first day.

I am really excited about working with them. The PenPals program is GREAT for the dogs as they have a 100% adoption rate and the dogs do really well with the intensive care and training. It has also had unexpected benefits for the men who are caring for and training them.

They are understandably very proud of their animal. They are it’s last chance and that is a big responsibility. Gaining the trust of an animal that has been abused or abandoned takes a giving of one’s self. You have to trust and give first before the animal will trust and give back. And animals don’t care where you have been or what you are wearing, they don’t care about your past, they are just looking for a leader they can put their faith in.

If you are looking for an animal oriented charity that has the good of animals and people at heart, you might want to look into the SOS-PenPals program.