Max was a wonderful classroom pet, stuck in the 4th grade for eight years!
Because Max was so quiet, he was able to travel quietly with my family to hotels, restaurants, stores, as well as with fourth graders on field trips, and occasionally to church! He was always so happy to see the students and be at school.
We will miss him very much and have very good memories of him.
To help us talk about our experience we were fortunate to have Betty Carmack visit us and help us this morning in class.
Students shared their feelings, including: being sad, upset, happy that he is not suffering, and also angry that he is not with us anymore.
Students shared memories they had, including: eating crayons, playing with the squeaky toy outside, and how if we wanted him to eat a treat that didn't have a lot of flavor, we had to pretend to eat it!
We also talked about how Max taught us lessons. Students shared that Max helped them to be responsible, caring, and kind.
Betty wrote down all of our thoughts, ideas, and feelings so we could look at our list and think about our classroom pet.
You can learn more about Dr. Betty J. Carmack's book, experiences and education, by going to her website www.bettyjcarmack.com We were so very lucky to have her visit us today, please visit her site, I think you will be very impressed by her work. Betty will be back to visit us and see the artwork wall we created for Max.
In addition, Dr. Margaret Kang at Arguello Pet Hospital, www.arguellopet.com Max's vet for many years, was very helpful and kind about caring for Max.
During the month of March, Dr. Lisa Klopp at Sam's Clinic www.andrewsamsclinic.com really tried very hard to help Max get healthy again. She understood how much we wanted him to be back in our classroom.
Max & Fiona root for their favorite team, Go Giants!!!
