ANIMALS AND THEIR FEELINGS II – A READING UNITSTUDENTS: These four stories paint a picture of how
animals act and feel. There are many times when people areheroes, cry for those they miss, and call each other names orlaugh at their own jokes. Aren’t there also times whenanimals do the same?
Read the next four stories, and think about how theanimals felt. Have you ever felt the same way? At the end ofeach story, write down how you think the animals werefeeling in these stories. Then, follow your teacher’s
instructions to write about a time when you felt the way
these animals did and how those feelings made you act.

TEACHERS: These four adapted stories illustrate how
animals experience feelings and act on them the same way
humans do. Ask the students to read the stories in small
groups or read them as a class. Discuss the way animals
must have been feeling in the stories and why they acted
the way they did. Then, ask the students to tell about times
when they have had similar feelings and how they acted.

5For each story, have the students write one to threememories of having felt the way the animals in these stories
did. Ask them to pick their favorite or most interesting
memory and to write a paragraph telling about the memory
and explaining why their behavior was similar to that of theanimal(s). These stories can be compiled into a wonderfulclassroom book. The students may want to contribute morethan one memory.
This extension of Share the World can be used as asingle writing activity or as a springboard to a related
reading unit. If you wish to make it a complete unit, begin
the activity by telling the students that they will be reading
and learning about animals. After the activity above, allow
students to select a book for a book report from thebibliography provided at the end of this unit. Assign an oral
report in which the students tell what the book was about
and read aloud one short passage that illustrates an animal
showing his or her feelings. Students might also enjoy
sharing their memory paragraphs in this format.

Animals Save Lives!

Priscilla, a 2-month-old piglet, saves a young boy
from drowning.
Adapted from Real Animal Heroes, by Paul DrewStevens. Chico, Calif.: Sharp & Dunnigan, 1989.

O

ne hot July day in 1984, Carol Burk and her
11-year-old son, Anthony, went swimming in
Texas’ Lake Somerville. They were joined byPriscilla, a 22-pound, 2-month-old piglet they hadraised. Priscilla loved the water and was a greatswimmer, but Anthony, a mentally handicappedchild, was not.
For hours, Anthony, his mother, and Priscillaplayed hide-and-seek in the shallow waters. Finally,Anthony tired and his mom turned to get ready toleave. When she turned back, Anthony was far out inthe water, struggling. She started swimming toward
him, and so did Priscilla. Despite being very tired
from swimming all day, the little pig reached
Anthony first. He grabbed for her halter and leash. In
his panic he pulled too hard and went under, thistime taking Priscilla with him!

Now both Anthony and Priscilla were drowningand he weighed almost four times more than she
did. Priscilla struggled to get to the surface of thewater. Finally, with enormous effort, she succeeded.
With Anthony clinging to her small body, Priscillaswam back to shore.
Priscilla, like all pigs, had a very long memory.
Years after the rescue, she still became upset
whenever she saw young children playing near thewater.
For her heroism, Priscilla was honored with a“Priscilla the Pig” Day in Houston, Texas.

©2001 ShareTheWorld.com

ANIMALS AND THEIR FEELINGS II – A READING UNIT

6Talk to the Animals!
Koko is a gorilla who learned American Sign Language andtaught her human family about gorillas and their feelings.
Adapted from Animals Who Have Won Our Hearts, byJean Craighead George. New York: HarperCollins, 1994.

K

oko learned to sign hundreds of words!
When she first signed the word for “food” toFrancine Patterson, the woman who tookcare of her, and Francine gave her food, Koko was so
happy that she put a bucket over her head and ran
around wildly.
Koko could easily learn the words for things she
liked but was not as eager to learn words for things
she didn’t. It took her two months to learn the word
for “egg,” which she hated, and only one minute tolearn “berry,” which she loved.
Koko has a great sense of humor. When asked thecolor of her white towel over and over until she wasvery bored, she signed, “Red.” When asked twice
again, she replied, “Red,” then carefully picked a tiny
speck of red lint off her towel. She laughed andagain said, “Red.”
Koko recognizes herself in the mirror, carefullycleans her room, and plays with her companion
animals. She was so sad when her cat died that she
was allowed to choose another kitten. She took careof her kitten companion with gentleness and love.
Koko also told people what and whom she didn’tlike. When she was really angry with someone, shewould call the person a “rotten toilet.” She had ayounger gorilla friend named Mike, whom she would
call “Mike nut” when she felt jealous. One of her
teachers, Ron Cohn, punished her when she
misbehaved. She called him “stupid devildevilhead.”
Eventually Francine Patterson realized that gorillas
like Koko and Mike should live where they can betheir natural gorilla selves. They all moved out to thecountry where Koko and Mike could climb fruit trees

and play in a huge outside area.
Koko signed her thoughts about herself and her
species when she said, “Fine animal gorilla.”

DID YOU ALSO KNOW?
• Prairie dogs have individual calls, whichscientists have called “one of the most complex
animal languages ever studied in the wild.”
When prairie dogs see a person and give thealarm, they are not just crying, “Danger!” butmight actually be saying, “Tall, dark man!”(Montgomery Journal, Douglas Birch, Oct. 27, 1991)• All humpback whales in alocal area sing thesame songs; thesmall populations
all have theirown stories totell.

• When electric fish
send out their signals to other fish, they can’t
hear themselves talk! (Animal Behavior, Jim Halliday,ed., 1994)©2001 ShareTheWorld.com

ANIMALS AND THEIR FEELINGS II – A READING UNIT

7Animals Are Sad When Others Die!
Lobo was a wolf who lived in America from 1889 to 1894. Many wolf-hunters tried to kill
him, but they never could. He was so smart and strong that people called him “the king.”
In this part of the story, hunters finally catch and kill Blanca, Lobo’s mate.
Adapted from Lobo the Wolf: King of Currumpaw, byErnest Thompson Seton. Seattle: Storytellers Ink, 1991.

In a canyon where Lobo was often seen, thehunters placed a dead cow and her cut-off headas bait. They surrounded the body and headwith steel-jaw traps and hoped Lobo and his packwould try to eat the cow or her head and be caught.
Later, when the trappers came to check the trap, theyfound one small wolf had taken the cow’s head andhad been caught by one of the traps. The wolf’s
footprints showed that she was trying to run awaywith the head.
The hunters followed the wolf down a trail. They
had gone about a mile when they saw her. She was awhite female they knew as Blanca, Lobo’s mate.
Blanca tried so hard to get away from the men that
she was able to outrun all the trappers, even though
she was carrying a 50-pound cow’s head and had asteel-jaw trap on one of her legs. But the hunters
finally caught up with her when the horns on thecow’s head got caught in the rocks. Blanca wasstuck.
Blanca knew she was cornered. Turning to fight,
she cried out for help, sending a long howl out overthe canyon. The hunters heard the responding cry of
the king, Lobo. That was her last cry, for now thetrappers had surrounded her. Although she fought
hard to live, the hunters outnumbered her, and she
was killed.
While the hunters killed Blanca and rode homewith her body, they heard Lobo’s cries as hesearched for Blanca. He must have known he could
not save her by staying with her. The trappers had
guns, and Lobo’s whole family had been killed byguns. All that day, the trappers heard him howling.

Seton finally said to the other trappers, “Now,indeed, I truly know that Blanca was his mate.”
As night fell, Lobo followed the trappers, hiscrying sounding nearer. There was a sound of sorrowin his cry. It wasn’t a loud, angry howl, but a long,sad wail. “Blanca! Blanca!” Lobo seemed to cry.

DID YOU ALSO KNOW?
• Aunt Gigi, an older chimpanzee with nochildren, adopted two orphan chimpanzees
whose parents had been killed! (The Great ApeProject, Paola Cavalieri & Peter Singer, eds., 1993)• Elephants often try to save dying relatives bykeeping them from falling down or feedingthem. When their relatives do die, the elephantsgrieve and sometimes even bury them! (WhenElephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals, Jeffrey
Moussaieff Masson & Susan McCarthy, 1995)• Geese mate for life andmourn when their mates arekilled. Geese have also been
known to feed their blind geesecompanions! (The Souls of Animals,Gary Kowalski, 1991)©2001 ShareTheWorld.com

ANIMALS AND THEIR FEELINGS II – A READING UNIT

8Animals Are Heroes!

Tang, a Newfoundland dog, saved 92 people from a sinking ship
in a horrible storm.
Adapted from Dog Heroes, by Tim Jones. Seattle:
Epicenter Press, 1995.

During a snowstorm in December 1919, a shipcalled the Ethie crashed into rocks off theshore of Newfoundland, Canada. Ninety-threepeople were trapped on the ship as the ocean
pounded it into the rocks. The crew tried to throw
one of the ship’s ropes to people on the beach, butthey missed. Then one of the sailors took the ropeand jumped into the ocean. He tried to swim to thebeach with the rope, but he was carried out to sea
and never seen again.
Then the ship’s captain saw Tang, aNewfoundland who lived aboard the Ethie. Thecaptain knew Tang was their last hope. He gave therope to Tang. With the rope in his teeth, the dog
jumped into the sea and swam for land. In the huge
waves and strong winds, it must have been hard forTang to swim—the undertow tried to drag him out tosea and the water rushed into his eyes and ears. But
he swam on until he reached the shore. People on
the beach ran into the water to pull Tang onto dryland. They took the rope from his mouth and tied it
to something strong. The rope was used to bring thepeople on the sinking ship to land. All 92 people on
the Ethie were saved.
History books don’t say what Tang did once he’dmade it to land, but it isn’t hard to imagine theexcited dog looking for his human companion,
greeting every person that came from the ship.
Lloyd’s of London, the famous insurance company,gave Tang a medal for bravery, which he wore for therest of his life.

DID YOU ALSO KNOW?
• A dog and a duck once led a mother to herdrowning son! (Real Animal Heroes, Paul Drew Stevens,1989)• A wildlife observer once saw an elephant try
over and over to rescue a babyrhinoceros from where she wasstuck in the mud, even though
the mother rhinoceros kept
charging the elephant! (WhenElephants Weep: The Emotional Livesof Animals, Jeffrey Moussaieff
Masson & Susan McCarthy, 1995)

SUGGESTED READING ON ANIMALSBeautiful Joe by Marshall Saunders, retold byQuinn Currie. Seattle: Storytellers Ink, 1990.

The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by PaulGoble. New York: Bradbury Press, 1978.

Pets Without Homes by Caroline Arnold. New
York: Ticknor & Fields, 1983.

Black Beauty by Anna Sewell. New York:
Scholastic Books, 1877.

Hunter and His Dog by Brian Wildsmith.
Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989.

Sandy of Laguna by Joseph Bell. Seattle:
Storytellers Ink, 1992.

The Bollo Caper by Art Buchwald. New York:G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1983.

In Hawk, I’m Your Brother by Byrd Baylor. New
York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1976.

The Secret of NIMH by Robert O’Brien. New
York: Scholastic Books, 1982.

Cat Stories by James Herriot. New York: St.
Martin’s Press, 1994.

Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George.
New York: HarperCollins Press, 1974.

That Quail, Robert by Margaret Stanger. New
York: HarperPerennial, 1966.

Charlotte’s Web by E.B. White. New York:
Harper, 1952.

Perfect the Pig by Susan Jeschke. New York:
Scholastic Books, 1980.

William’s Story by Debra Duel. Seattle:
Storytellers Ink, 1992.
©2001 ShareTheWorld.com