CABOT — The sounds of barking dogs and meowing cats echoed through the Cabot Animal Shelter the afternoon of June 9. While the canine yelps of excitement and the pitter-patter of four-legged creatures dashing across the pens are typical noises in an animal shelter, another sound was also in the air.
With concentration, visitors could hear stories being recounted to the animals. Dogs learned how the Grinch stole Christmas in the classic Dr. Seuss tale, and kittens heard all about Amelia Bedelia’s interpretation of how to play baseball as children participated in Cabot’s inaugural ARFF reading hour.
ARFF — or Arkansas Readers for Furry Friends — is a program designed to help readers and animals at the same time. Readers gain confidence in reading out loud by wearing noise-canceling headphones and reading to the animals. Meanwhile, the animals get used to being around people while not being the center of attention.
Summer Hall-Stickney and Jayden Craig grabbed their books and headed for the kitten room when they arrived at the shelter. The 8-year-olds said they were excited to get to read to the kittens.
“I thought it would be cool to get the kitties ready to go to a home,” Summer said.
Meanwhile, Billy Chesnutt, 9, sat in a chair across from a dog. He said he loves animals — he has a cat at home — and picked a big book to help him reach his summer reading goals.
“I enjoy animals,” he said, “I also enjoy reading.”
Mike Wheeler, animal-services director for the city of Cabot, said he has seen similar programs in other cities, and he is hopeful that ARFF will be successful in Cabot.
“[Other shelters] do this, and they tell me they have wonderful results,” Wheeler said. “I don’t see why we couldn’t do it. Kids read all over. They might as well read to my dogs.”
Kirsten Seidel, assistant children’s librarian at the Cabot Public Library, said she contacted Wheeler about another partnership between the library and the animal shelter when he brought up the idea of having children read to the animals.
“We decided to try it out with our summer reading program at the beginning, see how it goes and maybe continue once the school year starts again,” she said.
Seidel started to put the word out about ARFF on social media and in the library, and she said the response was very positive. Twenty-five readers signed up for the June 9 reading hour, and Seidel has a waiting list for future meetings.
“There has been a big interest in it,” said Daniece Howard, children’s librarian at the Cabot Public Library, “and I think it will continue to pick up.”
The major benefit for the readers is a chance to boost their confidence reading out loud, Seidel said.
“We have readers who get stage fright reading out loud,” she said. “There’s public reading in school, and this will get them ready for that. They can come in, put on noise-canceling headphones and not have to worry about anyone listening to them. They can go at their own speed and practice.”
Wheeler said it is good practice for the animals at the shelter to get used to humans doing other things and not necessarily petting or playing with them.
“When you walk into the kennels, the dogs are so excited to see somebody that they’re loud the whole time you’re out there,” he said. “Every time someone comes in front of a dog, what do they do? They reach over to pet them. If I can get people through here who are not there to touch and play with the dogs, it will be much better for [the dogs] in the long run.”
The Cabot Animal Shelter has a low euthanasia rate, Wheeler said, and some of the dogs have been there as long as eight months. Through programs like ARFF, Wheeler hopes to break some of the bad kennel habits the dogs have learned and get them ready for life in a home.
“We’re excited about it,” he said.
The next ARFF reading hour will take place at 1 p.m. Thursday.
Seidel and Howard request that interested readers sign up at the library before going to the animal shelter.
The Cabot Public Library is at 909 W. Main St., and the Cabot Animal Shelter is at 2951 S. First St.
For more information, call the Cabot Public Library at (855) 572-6657.