The person whom I wish to talk about is a man named Pete. Pete is one of the main guys at the Dubuque Regional Humane Society- every time I am there, so is he. He is a passionate guy who I can easily tell has a lot of passion- passion not only for the animals that he serves every day but for the customers who come in, the people he talks to on the phone, his coworkers, everyone. A story that helps demonstrate his passion and good character is when I was being trained as a Certified Pet Handler, which means I now have the ability to take the animals out of their cages by myself, and assist customers in this process as well. Pete is the guy who trained me, and during the session, he made sure to give me detailed instructions on how to handle the animals in a way that did not hurt them, and in a way that would not hurt the person I would give the animal to. He spent a lengthy amount of time describing different behaviors the animals might be showing, and to avoid the animals that are showing bad behavior as that could potentially put the animal in a bad situation, as well as myself. I could tell he took his job seriously and really cared for the safety of not only me, but the animals as well. I believe this shows good character as the job Pete has is one that someone could not take seriously and only do half the work, but in Pete's case, his compassion showed through.
I believe virtues that are necessary for someone serving in my particular project are love, charity, and courage. Love because not only are you demonstrating love for your neighbor by taking care of an animal that somebody had to give up due to a variety of reasons, but also love for ALL of God's creations, including animals, a category that a lot of the time gets thrown to the side in my opinion. Charity is an important virtue in my opinion for those who work for the Humane Society because they realize they are doing a job that is indeed part service, for the Humane Society cannot afford to pay high wages. As everyone who works at this animal shelter clearly loves the animals they work with, charity I can see present because the vets, etc. who work there could be getting paid higher wages elsewhere. Lastly, courage is important because I believe I need to be courageous in my work, for it's quite easy to succumb to feelings of sadness when leaving the animals and realizing that if an animal is kept in the cages long enough, they have to be put down.
Some habits that people might want to engage in to cultivate these virtues is gauging their emotions towards all of God's creatures, not just their fellow human beings. It is important for people to realize all of God's creation is just as important. Another way to cultivate charity is to, again, keep aware of one's emotions and by realizing there is a greater need. If someone has a lot in life, or even a little- they should give help to those who need it. Courage is a bit harder in my opinion, and to work on this, one needs to be proactive by attempting to do things that scare them, such as in my case, letting myself get attached to an animal that I know one day might be adopted.
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