2. The project
you produce for the class is different from the APA or Craigslist
bio. That bio is usually no longer than 300 words. Your project,
however, must be at least 1400 words; at least 700 words from
the animal's point of view; at least 700 words of your reflection
on the experience. Must include your original videos and photos
of the animal.
AFTER
YOU HAVE HAD A BLOG OFFICIALLY ACCEPED BY APA, HOW
DO YOU ADD EXPAND IT?
You could use this approach, though not, of course, in these
words:
We
know _______'s history after s/he was put in the shelter, but
like all (so many) of the dogs and cats who end up in the Town
Lake Animal Shelter (Center) ___________'s name was put on the
books there with little or no information about his/her past.
__________ can not tell us what happened to him/her before the
Shelter. So we will speak for him as best we can. We know that
he was either homeless or rejected by his family. Let's assume
he was homeless and that his story was something like this.
[his
or her story as you imagine it up to and including his being
put in the shelter]. Then, you tell the animal's story from is
point of view, knowing that, like all of the dogs and cats who
end up in the shelter, the animal suffered the trauma of the
long wait to be adopted, then the short death-row wait to be
killed, then ecstasy of escape from death at the last minute,
the joy of meeting up with the APA rescuers, then the loving
kindness of the APA! drivers, doctors, foster parents, volunteers
at the adoption locations, etc. Then he or she experienced the
wait with the foster parents, the wait at the Petsmart and other
street adoption sites, perhaps picking up a few diseases along
the way, like ring worm, Feline Herpes Virus, etc.
HOW DO
YOU ADD AT LEAST SEVEN-HUNDRED WORDS OF REFLECTION ABOUT THE
EXPERIENCE? FIRST OF ALL, YOU WANT TO HAVE A UNIFIED ESSAY.
To add
the reflection, and maintain some unity, you can at
least set up a chronology. First I got the assignment.
I felt..... I thought..... Then I went to the cattery......
Then I felt.... Then I thought....Then I pretended to be the
cat ........Then ........ etc. etc.. That's not the best way
but is better than no unity at all, I think.
Finally, you
can write your blog up on your regular blog site, as if you were
doing a DB, including pictures and videos. When
you are done, add
the word count at the bottom, with and without
quotes. Then copy the full URL at the top bar of
your browser.
There are two kinds of blogs you can do: APA
blogs and Craigslist blogs for those not rescued by APA. First
we will discuss the Craigslist blogs, then the APA dog blogs,
then the APA cat blogs. Next, I will supply
a possible draft for you to use for your first draft. Then
we will look at the APA Gus blog
as an example of how long they can be. Finally, we will
see some examples of sympathetic imagination projects from
previous classes, though these are longer than your APA blogs
will be.
When an animal is brought into Town Lake we let
all the other rescues go out first and pull whatever
animals they want into their own rescue programs.
Whatever animals are left are the ones slated to
be euthanized so we pull only from that list. We
go out to the shelter every evening and they hand
us the list of animals that are to be killed so
we spend time with those dogs and evaluate them.
If we feel a dog will work okay in our program
(not aggressive, no other issues that would impede
a fairly prompt adoption) we pull that dog out
of the shelter. If we don?t have room for some
of the dogs (not enough fosters, not enough room
at our own shelter buildings) or if the dog is
still okay but not
quite suitable for our program
then those are the dogs I take photos and videos
of and put on Craigslist and facebook in hope of
finding them a home before they are put to sleep.
We can usually put a hold on that dog to give me
time to do ads and postings but I still normally
only have about 24/48 hours to pull it off and
sometimes if the shelter is full and they need
space I don't get any time at all. But once we
do pull an animal from Town Lake they are with
us until adopted. We are a No Kill organization
and we are working hard to make Austin a No Kill
city. By no kill I mean our goal is that only 10%
of the animals going into the shelter will lose
their life. That 10% will be the ones that are
either too aggressive to put into a home or so
ill that the only humane thing to do is euthanize.
