Ice Skating and Animals

It was Tuesday, the twelfth of February. As we stepped foot outside, freezing winds blew arctic gusts straight to our bones. After loading the many coolers, lunchboxes, ice skates, and, of course, you can't forget the multitude of snacks, we rushed to the sanctuary of the cars, seeking the meager heat dispersed from the air vents. All sixteen students, four teachers, and four drivers piled into the cars, headed toward Kearney, the fifth largest city in Nebraska. As the cars pulled away, the tires skidded on the road that was more ice than pavement. We pulled out on the interstate and began the hour long drive to our destination, which was the Kearney Area Animal Shelter, or KAAS. As we got closer to Kearney, we got more excited, and the conversation turned to hilarious Driver's Ed experiences as we voraciously devoured great amounts of puppy chow.

We arrived at KAAS at about nine o' clock, and we obediently filed into the building. The elementary kids wandered off for a tour of the building while the secondary listened to a monologue about the business side of the animal shelter. After the director finished her speech, we began our tour. First stop was the cat room. In the aforementioned room, there were cages containing many felis catus (otherwise known as cats). We observed the cats as they observed the mice skittering across the screens mounted on the walls. Apparently it is supposed to keep the cats interested. Every once in a while an evil, clawed paw swiped outside of the bars and attacked anything that moved. (in one case, Nigel's nose). One especially skilled cat managed to steal a hat right off a student's head.

After finishing the cat room, we continued down the hall. Next stop was the food room. The walls were lined with shelves containing many different kinds of animal food, including a sizeable stash of peanut butter. Apparently dogs like it. Who knew. After that we arrived at the washing room. Two large, frightening washers and dryers loomed above our heads, busily washing and drying. After that was the room where the new inmates, I mean animals, was processed. Next was the sickroom, where there were a couple of cages containing sick and afflicted animals. At the back of this room there was a door. This door led to another room, this one named isolation. Inside this room was a poor kitty cat that was so sick that she had to be put into quarantine. Also in the room was a member of the shelter staff who was feeding the cat. She was decked out in full regalia. I mean, full on white lab coat, hair net, oxygen mask... Actually not the oxygen mask but you get the point. We were not permitted to enter this room, but we could watch the proceedings from behind a glass door. After exiting the sickroom, we continued down the hallway to the break room, which contained a table and chairs along with the normal stuff seen in rooms meant for relaxing and taking a break from the strenuous routine of work. There was also a dog in there that belonged to one of the staff members.

After we finished touring the hallway, we ventured back to closer to the front of the building. This was the part most of us was looking forward to. The dog domain. As the door was opened, a cacophony of barking started up. There were actually two dog rooms, and after checking out those canines, we walked outside to look at the outdoor kennels and the exercise field. This proved to be quite humorous, because most of us had forgotten that the cement was covered in a layer of ice. We gingerly walked around, trying to prevent slipping and falling. Next we walked inside, and continued to the next dog room. This room was much like the other one, with more dogs in large cages. As we turned the corner to go to the other side of the room, we saw a very cute little husky puppy. We all liked the puppy, but he didn't like us. He started yipping and yapping, and then realized that under the bed was probably the safest option. He lunged under his little doggy bed and continued his aggrieved barking. This also was quite hilarious, because each time he barked, his whole bed bounced.

This about concluded the shelter visit, except for standing in the main room talking. We also observed the shelter mascot, a black and white cat with a tail that somehow managed to look like a truffula tree from the "Lorax." We walked outside into the hyperthermia-causing cold to get into our transportation. Our next destination: The Viaero Event Center. We parked and began walking uphill to the center. We soon realized the mistake of parking downhill. The parking lot was also covered in ice, and walking uphill on ice is very challenging. We finally struggled our way to the top and entered the building. We walked down to the bleachers to eat our lunch. As we ate, we had the privilege to watch the Tri-City Storm hockey team practice. Once they realized they had an audience, they decided it would be a great idea to shoot their pucks into the Plexiglas wall at high rates of speed. This, of course, resulted in a very loud noise, which resulted in a few surprised students. After our lunch had disappeared and the hockey players were off the ice, we went down to the benches and began to lace up our skates. Once we finished that, we continued on to the ice. We skated around for about an hour, then we finished up and got ready for the third and final leg of the field trip: the Vet.

At this point was the sad separation of elementary and secondary, as we each went to a different vet. The secondary arrived at their clinic and walked inside. The receptionist and our tour guide was temporarily occupied, so we amused ourselves with looking at all the interesting items in the main room. After she finished creating a food schedule for a client's cat, she began our tour. The first order of business was to view a dog that had just underwent a very testing surgery the day before. Next we viewed the X-Ray machine, along with looking at x-rays of previous occasions. We looked at the operation room, the dentistry room, and all the supplies. At the back of the building was the cages of recovering patients. After finishing our tour, we were able to view an operation on a cat. We all crowded into the operating room to view the surgery, and we got to observe them putting a cat under anesthesia. They started by sticking his head in a cone-shaped thing with a hose attached that was administering gas. Once the cat was good and floppy, they pulled the head out and started trying to put a tube down its throat. They went about this procedure by grabbing the cats tongue and pulling it out of his mouth. We were all surprised at this, because this cats tongue was really long. Like LONG. It was hysterical. After a couple of tries they got the tube in and proceeded with the operation. After finishing the first part, they declawed the front paws of the cat. We had to leave after a while because we had to get back to Gothenburg. This concluded our field trip. It was actually quite fun, and we will all remember this when we are all old and grey.

~ Teral Franzen

Please enjoy the ton of pictures below!