Cecilia CarboneProfiles in HumanityBrownEnglish 1103/18/15The basic definition of the word literacy is the ability to understand written or verbal information. Then theres contemporary literacy, which is the ability to understand written or verbal information and the ability to relay to others. My own definition of literacy is knowing a particular skill, action, or language to feel comfortable doing it and to be able to teach others how to do it as well. This could be teaching a child to talk to teaching a person to bake to teaching a person to ride an elephant. Theyre all forms of literacy. For my practicum I am studying Ruths Memorial shelter, which is ran by the Humane Society. I have learned how to care for shelter dogs. I know the literacy to taking care of a shelter dog because I can teach other people to do the same work I do at the shelter. Having this ability makes it so that I know how to properly care for a homeless dog. This is valuable to my life particularly because I plan on working with dogs for my career. It also makes me feel that Im doing something valuable with my time. Im bettering the life of an animal that doesnt have anyone to count on. I would love to learn more about this so that I can do more at the shelter. I want to continue volunteering at dog shelters for as long as I can. Im passionate about dogs and hope that all of them can find a home as soon as possible. My main sponsors who taught me to take care of these dogs are Denver, and Heidi. Denver is a younger girl, about sixteen, who walks from her house fifteen minutes away a couple days a week to care for the dogs. She was the first person to teach me anything. She taught me how to take a dog out of their cage and how to handle a dog if its pulling on their leash. Another person who acted as my sponsor is Heidi, she taught me how to clean the cages. The first day I started my volunteer work Denver was assigned to train me. She gave me my first dog to walk, Marcy. Marcy is a small old gray and brown Chihuahua. Denver told me to lift her up and clip her leash and then make sure the crate was completely closed. She gave me a plastic bag as I walked outside and had me take her down the street and back. After her walk was over I scooped up her little body and placed her back in her cage and make sure it was locked. It was a pretty simple task but I felt great after doing it. Walking dogs all day and cleaning cages doesnt sound like rocket science but this shelter has an order to it that has to be maintained. Knowing how and where everything goes takes a little time but once its figured out the feeling of helping the animals is powerful. When Im at the shelter everything else going on in my life seems irrelevant. The dogs just absorb my attention and every time I leave I feel uplifted. Volunteering and learning these simple tasks is worthwhile. A dog is a creature that will love you forever after you give it a pat on the head. Helping an animal that is so pure and loving should be worth anyones time. I truly value my experience at Ruths Memorial Shelter. I plan to continue volunteering for a long time. Learning a simple skill will make a huge impact on someones life. The dogs have been through a lot and need people willing to take time for them. The feeling after working just a couple hours at the shelter isnt worth any paycheck.