Healing HEART Sanctuary and The Boys and Girls Club of Lompoc are teaming up to give the children a place to learn about and play with the special needs therapy animals at HHS.

The summer camp kids have already visited 3 times and have had a blast!  They have spent time with each of the different kinds of animals we have here at HHS including companion animals, dogs & cats; reptiles, turtles & tortoise; barnyard animals, goats, ducks, rabbits.

On day two we sat down and discussed which of the animals loved their last visit and which ones seemed a little overwhelmed by it all.  The children decided that the ducks seemed the most overwhelmed, so it was decided that they were to give the ducks their space unless Laura was holding one that they were invited to pet.

We were amazed at how well they followed that decision and not just on that day but the next visit too.  They were very respectful and engaged the ducks from afar, which the ducks were very comfortable with.

We are assuming that allowing the children themselves to create some of the rules helped them to remember to follow it, as opposed to HHS saying “You have to stay back a little from the ducks.”  Empowerment works.