Every January there is one program that fills the children’s department of the Calvert Library Prince Frederick with excited squeals of beginning readers.
On Saturday, those squeals were heard again as about 30 kids awaited their turns to read a story to a furry, four-legged audience.
The event, “Paws to Read,” began four years ago as a means for early or struggling readers to develop their skills by reading to a listener who would not criticize them, Children’s Department Coordinator Beverly Izzi said.
“It’s an opportunity for a beginning reader or a reluctant reader to read to an animal, and an animal’s just a good listener,” Izzi said. “They’re not gonna correct them. So it’s a really positive experience.”
Izzi said six therapy pets and their owners signed up to volunteer their ears for the event — five dogs and one cat. Though the cat arrived about an hour in, it was the first year the event ever had a cat since most therapy pets, animals that are trained to be calm in a public setting, are dogs, she said.
Carol Thompson, 5, of Prince Frederick, a pre-school student and avid lover of cats, held out for as long as she could waiting for the feline audience to arrive, and Izzi said she was glad it finally worked out that Thompson could read to the cat.
“She had a birthday party to go to, but she really didn’t care about the party,” Izzi laughed on Monday.
At the event, Thompson said she planned to read “Carl and the Kitten” to the cat.
“This is the first time,” she said of her participation in the program. “We’re really excited about it. I want to be a pet store owner.”
Thompson’s mother, Cara, said her daughter is an early reader and loves books.
“She loves the library, and they do such wonderful programs,” she said, adding at the start of the program, “There’s all these adorable doggies. But we’re holding out for the cat.”
While she has been a therapy pet for more than a year now, it was the first Paws to Read event for Lily, a 6-year-old black lab mix, and she successfully did her job of lying still and devoting her attention to young readers like 5-year-old Christina Cox of Huntingtown.
Cox read her a pop-up book, “Wizardology,” and a book about Abraham Lincoln.
“It was like reading to a person but not really,” she said. “She was moving around, but then she was sitting, laying, standing.”
Cox’s mother, Amy, said she brought her three children to Paws to Read last year, too.
“They loved it so we came again,” she said. “They can’t have pets; it’s like having another kid. So here they get to see dogs.”
Lisa Norwood, Lily’s owner, a resident of Prince Frederick, said Lily volunteers with the nonprofit Pets on Wheels, visiting hospital and nursing home patients on Tuesdays and Thursdays.
“She was so mild-mannered,” Norwood said. “I’ve always wanted to be involved with pets and therapy so I researched therapy dogs, got in touch with Pets on Wheels, she was evaluated, tested in a canine good citizen class and deemed a good dog.
“This dog knows when it’s time to go to work,” she continued, describing Lily’s excitement every Tuesday and Thursday. “And it’s amazing what the kids and patients get out of it. It’s unconditional love. They’re nonjudgmental. I’m thrilled to death with this dog.”
Although it was the first Paws to Read day for Lily, it was the second year for Truffle, a 4-year-old Norwich terrier who lives in Prince Frederick with her owner, Dorothea George, training director at the Chesapeake Kennel Club, which puts on two dog shows a year and holds dog obedience classes.
“I think it’s a great idea,” George said of the library program. “Some dogs like to do it, some are more hyper.”
Avery DeGennaro, 5, of Prince Frederick, read to Truffle. He said he doesn’t have a dog at home but would like one. It was his first time participating in the program.
“I just liked it,” he said.
mrussell@somdnews.com
