Animal Shelter Donates Books & Hosts Unique Storytime Event

An animal shelter in West Burlington, Pennsylvania, turned a regular library storytime into a lesson on empathy — and featured a special four-legged guest speaker.

The Happy Tails shelter donated a collection of animal-themed books to the Bradford County Library before hosting a special reading event for local kids. To help the children truly understand what it means to walk in someone else’s shoes — or paws — shelter director Karen Friedenberg brought along a sweet cat who only has one eye. The kids were asked to close one of their own eyes and walk around the room to feel what life is like from the cat’s unique perspective — and also learned how to spot when an animal is feeling nervous or curious.

Karen hopes the unique storytime lesson about animals gives kids the tools to also extend kindness to the people in their lives. “Treating animals with kindness creates a baseline for universal compassion,” Karen said. “Empathetic kids are more likely to share, to be inclusive and to be helpful to those in need.”