Northeast Florida kids who lost a parent in military action got to learn what it’s like to work at the Jacksonville Humane Society Friday.
The national nonprofit Tuesday’s Children sponsored the trip for Take Our Children to Work Day. The group supports families of military service members and first responders who died in the line of duty.
Christian, Jeffrey and Jordan started their day touring the animal hospital and peaking in on a surgery. Then, they toured the kennels, feeding treats to the pups. Eleven-year-old Christian stopped at nearly every kennel.
“I heard the word dog in the sentence and I wanted to come,” said Christian when asked why he came Friday.
Later they’ll bottle feed three-week-old kittens, but next was dog training.
Animal behavior assistant Misty Grauvogl brought out Clifford, a brown and white mixed-breed dog to a gated enclosure where the kids were waiting.
“If you guys want to line up, I’m going to show you what we’re going to do,” she said.
She laid out the rules and demonstrated how she teaches dogs to rollover. Then the kids got a try.
They were instructed to guide Clifford with treats, saying “yes” each time Clifford obeyed a command. The goal was to get Clifford to roll over on his back when given the command, “Monday.”
“I love this,” said Jordan, 17. “I’m surprised it worked.”
And Jeffrey, 15, was getting the hang of it too.
“Clifford, to me, was a very fast learner. ... We already got that bond relationship,” Jeffrey said.
The students chose among several jobs to shadow. Some kids chose the Jacksonville Fire Rescue Department, but Jeffrey said he wanted to come to the animal shelter because he wanted to give back to the animals, even though he doesn’t think he wants a career in it. He said he wants to be an FBI agent one day.
“The criminal justice system just really stuck out to me because my dad was in the military,” Jordan said. “You know once he passed away, I really got to know — I want to go into action. But I don’t want to go into the military.”
A Tuesday’s Children spokeswoman said she’s planning to reach out to the FBI to see if they’ll participate in next year’s Take Our Children to Work Day.
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Reporter Lindsey Kilbride can be reached at lkilbride@wjct.org, 904-358-6359 or on Twitter at @lindskilbride.
