Valuable Lessons

What I have found most valuable about this course is an appreciation for volunteers who help with animals.  Previously I always thought it was more important to volunteer with people, and I always shied away from volunteering with animals because I always found the cause somehow less worthy.  I found it taxing when people would talk about helping animals because I felt they only cared because people were cute and thankful while people are a challenge to help.  (In my defense it is not easy to work in a soup kitchen and some of the individuals who come can be quite ... intimidating.)  Now that I'm volunteering at the shelter I realize the strength that shelter volunteers must have.  I checked up on what animals who are no longer at the shelter got adopted, and I found that 4 of my 10 animals had to be put down.  Saskia and Jonsey both got ill, I believe Saskia caught Pan Luke.  Tamara was put down because of her temperment, from what I saw she was really terrified of everyone.  While it saddens me that these cats met this fate, I can understand the shelter's decesion.  Julip was also put down, not because she was ill, and she had an amazing personality (she was actually very playful and played peek-a-boo with me during our photoshoot) but because she had been there a long time and space was needed for kittens.  Those kittens are there at least in part because people don't spay or neuter their pets.  We, as humans, put domesticated animals in the shelter because of our irresponsibility.  The critters who live in the shelter are not squirrels or bats who are still wild and, while they may have evolved through indirect human manipulation, we did not create these species.  These species do not depend on us.  

My feelings are a mixed bag about the course being online.  Had the course not been online, I would not have taken it.  However, having seen a few reactions to animals leaving the shelter and knowing the shock and grief I've experienced in this course I feel that a classroom where several individuals are experiencing these things (even if not for the first time) as well would be helpful simply as a means of support. 

I don't really know how to demonstrate this lesson in a photograph, and I don't believe that was the sort of answer expected of me so I'll add this.  I've gained courage in Photoshop and I don't mind experimenting now where I was afraid to before.  For instance, I'll try to color correct images.  I enjoy that I've learned how to sharpen and apply a blur to focus the eye.  I hope I find ways to apply these techniques later in life. 

This is Carol (53918).  This image was a little on the red side, so I changed the magenta/green to be just slightly more green.  This is the first picture I've worked with where I could see an incorrect tint.