Q: You are walking in your neighborhood and you see a dog wandering with no one supervising him. What do you do?
Judge a response compassionate if it includes a way to find the dog's owner, or get him to an animal shelter.
A response is not compassionate if it involves chasing or ignoring the dog.
Q: True or False: A female cat and her offspring could produce 420,000 cats in only 7 years.
The answer is A: TRUE. This is why it is so important to spay or neuter your pet. Thousands of healthy kittens are euthanized each year because there are not enough homes for them.
The game board is similar in layout to the "Whodunit" game board. Each corner has a cluster of 3 ID tags (1 clue per ID tag). Each group of 3 clues holds a certain type of information: Who Rosco is, When Roscoe was lost, or Why Roscoe was lost. The track runs around the board and passes through each of these corners so that players may collect the information.
The track has 3 types of spaces on the track. Spaces with paw prints require the player to answer a question from a Knowledge Card. Spaces with hearts require the player to respond to a Compassion Card. There are two paw print spaces for every heart space. Spaces next to an ID Tag clue are marked "ID," and allow the player to look at the clue on the adjacent tag, which lays face down on the board.
Knowledge Cards are cards with questions about facts and concepts related to pets. The questions are multiple choice, and the correct answer is indicated on the card. The player must answer the question correctly, or he/she will lose his/her next turn. There is a spot for the Knowledge Card stack on the game board. Used Knowledge Cards are set aside.
Compassion Cards present a more abstract question or discussion topic. The player must respond to the issue stated. The response is judged by the other players as "compassionate" or "not compassionate." If judged not compassionate, the player loses his or her next turn. The card contains hints for the judging players about what may constitute a compassionate response. There is a spot on the game board for the stack of Compassion Cards. Used Compassion Cards are set aside.
The dice are used to determine the number of spaces a player may move at each turn.
The game would take only a few minutes to set up. Play would take approximately 1 to 2 hours, though this depends on the number of players and their level of knowledge.
I started out imagining a very different type of game than what I ended up with. I began with a more limited instructional objective, which was to have players understand the problems associated with pet overpopulation. As I began to work with this objective, I considered a Jenga type game that would represent the difficulties of "balancing" an unending and multiplying supply of cats and dogs. This didn't seem to have much substance to it though, so I decided to expand the instructional objective to allow a more multi-faceted game. Hence, pet overpopulation became a subtopic of companion animals in general.
I gathered information by visiting web sites devoted to animal rescue and adoption, such as the Humane Society of the United States. These helped me develop the two-sided approach to learning in the game. One is the knowledge side, represented by the Knowledge Cards, which help players learn about facts related to companion animals. The other side is the role of compassion when dealing with animals. I used the Compassion Cards to help players develop a deeper understanding of and more compassionate attitude toward animals.
When I changed from the "pet overpopulation" objective to the broader one, I still wanted to keep a focus on the plight of homeless animals. So, the game became similar to Whodunnit, except that the goal is to find information to rescue a lost pet instead of clues to identify a murderer.
Last updated October 22 2000