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News – Storyboard Happy pets and future vets
This is just one piece of sage advice Ellet High School's Ann Rose has passed on to her animal management students. This year, Rose's 18 11th-graders will work with Judy Blower's 20 12th-graders to shampoo, clip, brush, feed and love their way into the animal-care industry. "I've loved animals my whole life and wanted to be a vet ever since I was five," explains Kenmore 11th-grader Meranda Smith. "Programs like this are good because if kids don't have enough money to go to college, they can get a start here and then go out and get jobs."
Frogs, rats, snakes, hamsters, dwarf hamsters, fish, mice, a pigmy hedgehog, a ferret, a chinchilla and several birds round out the menagerie in the school's pet shop. Some of the animals are for sale, and others are used as teaching tools for students learning to groom and care for small animals. The student-run grooming business is so popular that it boasts a three-month waiting list.
"It's her first time on the table, so she's a little nervous," explains junior Amy Dailey before she notices Sadie's bleeding gum. "Did someone just lose a tooth?" she coos to the oversized, wildly happy puppy. During their junior year, animal management students learn basic grooming skills including feeding and brushing pets and holding and using clippers. Senior year sees students studying more advanced grooming and scissor work as well as animal physiology. "The biggest misconception is that my students just come in and play with animals," says Rose. "I can tell you they really do work hard and have a lot of responsibility."
The honor of caring for Louie the Hedgehog during winter break fell to Meranda, who also took him home for the Thanksgiving holiday. "My mom was a little freaked out," says Meranda with a giggle. "But when she held him, Louie started grooming [licking] her! Mrs. Rose says that means he loves her."
Each year, more students apply for the program than can be accommodated. Approximately 50 percent of the program's students stay in animal care after high school. The program's pet shop and grooming business generate more than enough revenue to purchase new pets and pet supplies. "The animal-care industry is a billion-dollar business, and there are a lot
of uneducated people out there selling animals," says Rose. "We're providing a
public service and teaching real skills." Judging from the happy pets and future
vets who fill her classroom, she and Blower are providing much more. Ellet Groom Shop
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Just
in case you were wondering, grooming a fox is quite different than grooming a
dog. Foxes, it seems, put off a strong, musky odor. So if you find yourself in
the company of a dirty fox, try to bathe him outside. Oh, yeah, and keep him
muzzled. 
Meranda,
who plans to work as a groomer to save money for vet school, is one of 17
students who enroll from other Akron high schools. She spends her mornings at
Ellet before hopping a bus back to Kenmore for her regular classes. 
On
a recent day, Sadie, a mix of Labrador, Shar-Pei and several other breeds,
fidgets nervously as her shiny, brown coat is brushed. 
For
example, students provide a home to all of the pets in the store during winter,
spring and summer breaks. "All the kids want to take the reptiles home because
they're easy to care for," laughs Rose. "They also love the birds, ferret,
chinchilla and hedgehog." 
The
animal management program began in 1988. A school administrator asked Blower,
who ran a grooming service, to teach grooming classes a couple of days a week.
Blower loved it so much that she shuttered a successful business, earned a
teaching degree and returned to start the animal management program full time.
In 1994, the program was moved to Ellet High School where science teacher Rose
(who also holds degrees in horse production/management, animal science and
agricultural education) joined her. The two never looked back.