Tag Archives: teachers

27

The Summer Was a Zoo

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How to Train a Siamese Cat (4 Easy Steps) | Hepper Pet Resources

Ms Cavendish, an elegant Siamese, was the new primary-level teacher at the Cheeseland Academy of Inter-Species Learning. It’s the first day back after summer break.

Ms Cavendish: Welcome everyone to our first day of school. My name is Ms. Cavendish, and I’ll be your teacher this year. I thought that a good way to introduce ourselves would be to go around the room and tell everyone one thing that you did this summer. Would anyone like to start?

Video: Who Wins This Battle Of Cat Vs. Squirrel? | PawTracks

Sally Squirrel: Ooh, me! My brother Hal got into a fight with the cat next door. There was so much hissing and chittering that my mom had to throw water on them to break it up.

Ms Cavendish: Oh my! Is everyone okay?

Sally: Yes. But my mom said that they aren’t allowed to play in the bird bath anymore.

Running the Raccoons at Critter Care Wildlife Society - YouTube

Ralph Raccoon: We went on a trip to the mountains to visit some relatives this summer.

Ms. Cavendish: Oh, that sounds lovely.

Ralph: We had a great time. And I learned something new.

Ms Cavendish: What did you learn?

Ralph: That humans are really weird. Some of them think that we are adorable and others think that we are full of diseases. One lady saw me and my sister playing chase, running after each other. She started yelling at someone to get a gun because we had to be diseased to be running around like that.

Adorable raccoon eats a marshmallow

Ms Cavendish: That must have been terrifying. What happened?

Ralph: Another lady came out, but she didn’t have a gun. She said, “Myrtle, you’re crazy. Can’t you see that they’re little raccoons having fun?” Then she made the other lady go inside.

Ralph: It turned out really well. The humans had a bonfire later, and we went back to thank the nice lady. She gave each of us something called a s’more. It’s 2 graham crackers with melted marshmallow and chocolate between them.They were really yummy.

Su Pallosu's cat beach is taking Sardinian tourism by storm - Traveling Cats

Tommy Tabby: Me next. We went to the beach.

Ms Cavendish: That’s an interesting choice for a cat family. Do you all like water?

Tommy: Not at all. I mean it’s great to drink, but don’t make me walk or play in it. My mom’s the same way.

Su Pallosu's cat beach is taking Sardinian tourism by storm - Traveling Cats

Ms Cavendish: So who planned the trip?

Tommy: My dad did. He says he didn’t notice all of the water. He wanted to go for the sun and sand. That part was really nice. But my little brother didn’t understand that it wasn’t an open-air litter box. We almost got kicked out when another guest saw him doing his thing. Mom was so embarrassed. She says we’re never going back.

Ms Cavendish: I can definitely see why she would be a little uncomfortable. Who’s next?

Labrador Retriever Group | Facebook

Lily Lab: We went to a family reunion in a place called Woofington.

Ms Cavendish: That sounds like a dog-friendly place.

Lily: We thought so too. But maybe a little too dog-friendly. My aunt had reserved a place in one of their parks for all of us. She was expecting 20-25 dogs. But the park is big, and it seemed like every Yellow Labrador family in the state was in Woofington. There were also lots of Chocolate Labs and Golden Retrievers.

Ms. Cavendish: That sounds like a lot of dogs.

Tibetan Mastiff Owner's Guide | Greencross Vets

Lily: My mom said that she had never seen so many dogs. We followed the directions to our site. She found her sister pretty fast. My aunt was really upset. Some other family had taken over the site.

Ms Cavendish: That’s awful. What happened?

Lily: Not long after we got there, Mom’s other sister arrived with her family, Aunt Shelly’s married to Steffo. He’s a Tibetan Master. He’s really sweet and wouldn’t hurt a fly. But he’s huge and very protective of his family. He went to the alpha of the other family and suggested that they had made a mistake. They were really good about moving on.

_MG_1231 | A young grizzly bear and a coyote having a conver… | Flickr

Ms Cavendish: This is all very interesting. Anyone else want to share?

Kyle Coyote: We got kicked out of a national park. I don’t want to say which one because they might be looking for us.

Ms Cavendish: Oh my goodness! What happened?

Kyle: My family went to this park and wanted to camp. Did you know that some of those places are run by humans? We thought bears ran them all. Bears are cool to coyotes; humans are not.

What's All the Ruckus? Coyote Howling at Night.

Ms Cavendish: And the one you went to was run by humans?

Kyle: Yeah. Mom and Dad got into a huge fight when they found out. Mom won, so we decided to stay. But the guy at the entrance was kinda a jerk. He read all of the rules to us like we were too stupid to do it ourselves. We finally set up camp and ate. We were relaxing at night when we heard the call of the wild. Of course we had to respond. Several other coyotes joined in.

Ms Cavendish: That sounds wonderful.

Kyle: It was. Until the humans showed up and told us we were breaking the rules by making noise after 9 pm. He got into a fight with my dad who scented him. Then we got kicked out.

My favorite animal in i party hat, how cute!!

Ms Cavendish: This has all been a lot of fun. I’m sorry but we’re out of time. Any last thoughts?

Voice at the Back: Party with animals, not with humans.

Pets In School

Pictures courtesy of Google Images

2

It’s the End of the World as We Know It

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(Thanks to REM.)

My kids graduated from high school on Thursday. They’re not twins, but it’s a long story. Our district doesn’t have graduations for kindergarten, 4th grade, 8th grade, or anything else. So this is a big deal.

On the last day of class (they let the seniors out two weeks before the rest of the district), they had the “Senior Walk”. This is a long-standing, hallowed tradition. The kids put on their caps and gowns and walk through all the halls saying good-bye to their friends. As my son said, his friends were all seniors, so it was just a long walk. Then they walk across the bridge over the road outside. A lot of the parents come and take pictures, and it ends up in  the local paper. I’m waiting for the movie.

In an epic case of cosmic bad timing, one of the students had died from cancer three days before. It gave the kids a chance to honor him with ribbons on their gowns and signs on their caps. That was the only positive – at least they were all together to support each other. And his identical twin. As I said, it was cosmically awful for these kids.

Next up was the Honors Assembly. I had flashbacks to my own. For me high school was socially passable, academically successful. So my mother made me go. It was an extremely long night. Everyone who had won anything had to troop across the stage and be applauded. When my daughter got an invitation, I was not thrilled. Proud, but not thrilled.

When we got the programs, it didn’t look too bad. There was a welcome by the principal (who everyone likes) and the handing out of several scholarships. We weren’t sure why we were there since our daughter had not won any of the listed scholarships, but it looked reasonable.

I should have realized that there would be a catch. We began with a paean to the top ten academic students. Who were sitting on the stage. They presented the names alphabetically in the interests of treating them all equally. Apparently there was no concern about segregating them from the rest of their classmates.

Being mainly academic scholarships, there was a lot of repetition in who was receiving them. The parents all clapped appreciatively, although a lot of us were wondering why they had been invited to see awards given to other people’s children.

Finally our patience was rewarded. Sorta.  After a break, we were treated to a parade of the students with their pictures and awards/scholarships flashed on a screen. It was great. Except they neglected to list the two scholarships our daughter had won from the colleges she applied to. At least her picture looked nice.

My uncle wanted to attend the ceremony. And drive. My daughter had gotten the directions, and it appeared to be an easy drive. But my uncle had a “better way”. I didn’t find out about the “better way” until we were driving past our exit. Long story short – the improvement added a half hour to our drive. If we’d been a few minutes later, the kids would not have been allowed to walk in the procession.

And we would have been sitting behind the stage. Did I mention that one of the main uses for the building is as a sports arena? It’s the home of one of the feeder teams for the Red Wings. It has two parts, but both are set up in a 360 degree viewing pattern.

As it was, we ended up behind the band. As near as I can tell, the individuals all play fairly well, but the director hasn’t taught them to play as a unit. It was a unique rendering of “Pomp and Circumstance”. Over and over as all 500+ students filed in (it’s a consolidated district). Plus the dignitaries and teachers.

The teachers. I’m glad they weren’t the ones teaching my kids manners. Most of them only applauded for a few of the students. Only a few of the students clapped for everyone. I was proud to see that two of them were related to me. I forgave their ability to sleep in while I get up at 2:30a for a few minutes.

Four of the teachers performed the class song, “Don’t You Forget About Me,” by Simple Minds. I love the song and thought it was a great choice. I think the band was more nervous than the kids. At least their parents weren’t recording every move.

The speeches were short and poignantly sweet. During the procession, they made it all the way to the middle of the “A”s before they got a name wrong. A first name. Totally wrong. He probably would have gotten more applause if anyone had known who he was.

Then it was over. And we had to find our kids among the hundreds of people at the bottom of the arena. That (and getting out of the parking lot) took almost as long as the ceremony.