Dogs and cats might look different from us, Tom Alexander told Rae Sue Vigil’s fourth grade class. But are they really so different?

Alexander asks the students what pets need. Food and water, chimes in one student at Nina Otero Community School. After some coaxing, another says “play.” Shelter, medical care, exercise and grooming soon follow, filling the whiteboard.

When a student chimes in with “love,” Alexander pauses.

“Love,” he repeats. “Oh boy, I’m going to put this one over here in big print.”

Not so different after all.

Alexander, a volunteer with the Santa Fe Animal Shelter, has spent about two decades teaching students just like those in Vigil’s class how to be kind to animals. His longtime dedication to the cats, dogs — and sometimes snakes, bunnies and birds — of New Mexic

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