Brownie Adventures: Earning Our Brownie Pets Badge

I’m a reluctant Girl Scout leader.  My mom and I co-lead together.  She takes care of the traditional meetings because she is better with arts and crafts and all that jazz.  I take care of our cookies, paperwork, and field trips because I’m better at procedures and planning.  It actually works out really well and I don’t think either of us feel too put upon.

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One of the things we have focused on this year is getting our troop out and active in our local council and community.  As Daisies, we really just had meetings and things that we planned ourselves.  Mom and I were still getting the hang of leading a troop and the girls were still kind of young to be our traipsing around town.  But since the girls are all first-year Brownies and in 2nd grade, we wanted this year to be more hands-on for them.  We’ve done several day trips, events, and adventures so far and the girls seem to really like them.

This past weekend, the girls and I volunteered at an animal rescue center for a few hours.  It was fantastic!  The place is in Saint Cloud and is called “Amazing Animals” and had such a great program.  They did a presentation for the first part and brought out all kinds of animals for the kids to pet and touch.  They also talked about responsible pet ownership and how to safely take care of animals and pets around us.  Even I learned a lot!

After the presentation, our troop was sent over to the tortoise enclosure.  Part of the badge requirement is that you actually take care of a pet, so the girls took care of the tortoises this morning.  They cleaned their enclosure by raking up all the leaves and droppings.  They filled their little pool with fresh water and gave them plenty of lettuce to eat.  They even got to scrub their shells and put shell lotion on them.  (I’m sure there is an official name for shell lotion, but I don’t know what it is…)

The girls did a great job!  They hardly complained at all and they all helped without having to even be asked.  I was so proud of them!  We are getting ready to start planning our first ever overnight camping trip with the girls.  I just hope they are as happy campers as they are pet volunteers!