My name is Tanya Ritchie and I am the club leader of Clifton Hills Primary School’s Animal Club.  I am writing to tell you about an ongoing club activity involving a beautiful dog, Lucy, and her owner, Mrs Telford. 

Mrs. Michelle Telford is the mother of one of CHPS Animal Club members and she volunteered to bring her dog Lucy to the animal club meeting, with the intention of identifying ways in which people can care for pets by catering for their needs, such as: food, water, shelter, grooming, health, security, warmth.  Mrs. Telford’s and Lucy’s first visit was on Wednesday 2^nd August, 2006. 

Mrs Telford and Lucy with Animal Club members

During this visit CHPS animal club members met Lucy and were able to pat and cuddle her.  Mrs. Telford then spoke to club members about Lucy, discussing the type of dog she was, her history, and her individual habits.  Following that, Mrs Telford explained some of the basic, yet important, aspects of caring for a dog, e.g. cleaning their food and water bowls after each use.  She then went on to show club members some of Lucy’s basic belongings, such as her:  brush, sleeping cushion, toys, collar, lead, flea ointment, and water and food containers.

To complete this visit Mrs Telford selected one of CHPS Animal Club members to hold Lucy’s lead whilst all club members took Lucy for a walk around the school oval. 

Lucy’s second visit to CHPS Animal club was on Wednesday 30^th August, 2006.  During this visit Mrs Telford discussed what fleas were, providing thorough information and diagrams.  She then went on discussed the importance of protecting pets against flea infestation and demonstrated how she applied flea ointment to Lucy each month to prevent flea infestation.

At this visit, Mrs Telford also went through the importance of cleaning a dog’s ears and teeth, and demonstrated how she did this with Lucy.  She then selected different CHPS Animal Club members to take turns at using the ‘baby wipes’ to clean Lucy’s ears and the ‘dog toothbrush and toothpaste’ to clean Lucy’s teeth.

Again to complete this visit, Mrs Telford selected one of CHPS Animal Club members to hold Lucy’s lead whilst all club members took Lucy for a walk around the school oval.

We have had an overwhelming response to our request for membership of our newly formed Animal Club at the College. 

Over 30 students have joined - with more expressing interest every day!  For our first activity we organised a food and blanket drive to support local shelters in our area.  Members went to each of the 56 tutor groups in the College asking for donations, made posters, put "ad's" in the weekly newsletter and daily bulletin and spoke at our Assembly. The respopnse has been great - Mrs McInnes, our Animal Club leader, has made 3 trips to deliver the food and blankets already!  This will be an ongoing campaign in the College but we also want to organise to go dog-walking at the RSPCA, have guest speakers at our assemblies and run raffles to raise money for the RSPCA!  With such a committed and energetic group we are confident of making a big difference!

Mrs Mort, our Animal Club leader, organized a quiz for us to complete in order to earn our Animal Club lanyards.  In the quiz all the questions involved the Animal Club website and its founders.  Mrs Mort also organized us to draw a picture of our favourite animals.  Each morning at our assembly she would call out all of the students who had given her their quiz and got the answers right.  That is how we earned our lanyards.  We at Yuluma are proud to have such a dedicated leader running our Animal Club.  Written by Karri

This was our first Animal Club meeting for this term during the first week back at school.  We were very lucky to have Mrs. Lowry, a guest speaker, attend the meeting. Mrs. Lowry is an exceptional lady who travelled to Texas last year to volunteer and complete a three month internship working with big cats, (tigers, lions, pumas, leopards), at Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge, a non-profit foundation that provides rescue and rehabilitation for big cats that have been abused, neglected or displaced. At the beginning of her presentation Mrs. Lowry shared with CHPS Animal Club her university qualifications and explained how and why she began working with animals.  She then went on and discussed in great detail the requirements of her internship and the many amazing sights and experiences that she witnessed and encountered. As a part of her presentation, Mrs. Lowry, delivered a photo slide show that showed her performing the various duties (feeding, cleaning, health monitoring, and providing guided educational tours) that were required of her and the other staff members in order to care for and look after the big cats.   Mrs. Lowry also showed us many pictures of the 37 big cats that she helped take care of, explaining the background of each of the big cats and providing information on how they came to be at Tiger Creek Wildlife Refuge. Most of the Cat’s stories were very sad and heartbreaking.; This stimulated a lot of emotion, thought and discussion amongst club members, whilst highlighting the importance of raising awareness for the care and protection of all animals.

Sophie, Animal Club Team Leader, and her son have been volunteering at Monika's Doggie Rescues in Alexandria, NSW for some time when they had an idea for the Emmanuel School Animal Club to help sponsor a dog a month at Monika's. Monika's Doggie Rescues is an organisation devoted to the care and re-homing of neglected, abused and abandoned dogs in Sydney. They approached the Year 4 parents, informed them about Monika's Doggie Rescues and the good work they do. The support that was received was very gratifying - the Year 4 parents donated enough funds to sponsor a dog per month for a year. Snow, in the photograph, is a very lucky girl who now has a permanent home thanks to the extra time she was given by the Emmanuel School Animal Club sponsorship. Well done Animal Club.