Compassion

When Cosette goes to work with me, she spends a lot of her time at the Glenrock dorm, the dorm where the ponies are kept. It’s the part of the school where I spend most of my time. I was a little concerned about how she would take to the boys. A nervous little puppy with a dorm full of 13 year old boys, and a 3 year old girl. It could have posed a huge problem.

It’s funny then, that just a few days before I found Cosette, that I did a dorm devo for the boys about compassion. It wasn’t a lecture about them needing compassion, it was more about the fact that I have seen how compassionate they are, and I wanted to show them how biblical their attitude toward the animals was. One of the main verses I used was Proverbs 12:10:

A righteous man cares for the needs of his animal, but the kindest acts of the wicked are cruel.

These boys care for the animals so well. The first words I hear from them each day at the school are, “Where’s Cosette?” or “How’s Cosette?” They have Cosette, and the horses, and the cat, and they love them all. I always tease them that they don’t miss me when I am not there, just only miss my puppy.

I go down after school finishes to pick up Cosette who spends a lot of time in the afternoons in the feed shed at the dorm, and there’s usually at least one boy in petting her. If it is cold, Cosette is often tucked into the jacket of one of the boys so that she can stay warm. Or one of the boys will have fashioned a little bandana for her from some scrap cloth that was in the shed. They all know she is my puppy, but they take care of her as though she was theirs. It is really neat to see these young boys having such compassion on a little puppy, and taking care of her even though she isn’t theirs.

I do wonder what the dorm would have looked like this year without all of the animals. They seem to bring out the best in the boys. Especially the puppy and kitten. Maybe it is the thing of taking care of baby animals, I don’t know. And baby animals who are so happy to see them.

The boys take care of the animals, and in a way, I feel like the animals take care of them too. There’s something about an animal that can make you forget that you’re living away from home, and away from your family. They can brighten any day, no matter how terrible it has been. Seeing the joy that radiates from an animal who is excited to see you is a feeling that cannot be replicated by anything else. Therapy in its most raw form.