Animals play big part in Kaitlin Henderson’s life

At age 13, Kaitlin Henderson already knows how to spot a cow with a good udder and superior carcass. She knows how to coerce unmotivated dogs into following her commands. From her Hayden Lake home, she fattens up swine, tends to geriatric chickens and ensures that a trio of cats has clean litter boxes.

Since Henderson is home-schooled by her mother, Kathryn, the menagerie of animals are her classmates and the forest is her playground. She likes her untraditional schedule. First there are animal chores, then breakfast, then schoolwork. If she finishes quickly, she can use the afternoon to do things that she enjoys.

At the top of her list is riding horses with her mom or taking a walk in the woods with her favorite dogs.

“It’s really nice,” she said. “It’s pretty back there and you get to walk around without being worried about getting hit by a car.”

Henderson gets plenty of opportunity to socialize with two-footed friends also. She belongs to the Ramsey Raiders, a 4-H club of about 40 members who focus on animal projects. Henderson concentrates on cows, swine and dog training. She normally raises Dexters, a small breed of cattle, but plans to get an Angus female for this year’s project. Besides the animals’ physical needs, cattle projects require conscientious paperwork. Henderson must keep records of weight gain and costs. Any money she earns raising pigs and cows will go toward college and a car.

She’s won awards through 4-H for her dog-training skills. Her Redbone hound took Reserve Champion, the second-place prize, in sitting and showing. Her Fila Brasileiro took Reserve Champion for tracking a scent. Through her studies, Henderson learned that this breed has a history of tracking down jaguars.

“It can be a very large dog and very athletic,” she said. “It’s a 400-year-old breed.”

Despite all of the wisdom she’s gleaned through 4-H, Henderson doesn’t plan to follow her father’s footsteps into a career with animals. Mike Henderson runs a horseshoeing business. Instead, the teen is fascinated by her mother’s job as a labor and delivery nurse and thinks she’d like that. Hoping to learn more about health care, she joined the Teen Volunteer program at Kootenai Medical Center this fall. Her duties include delivering supplies throughout the hospital and wheeling patients to their cars after they are discharged.

“It makes you feel good that you’ve helped someone out,” she said. “All the patients I’ve dealt with have been pretty nice. My challenge was learning my way around the hospital.”

Henderson participates in other community service activities with her 4-H club. She’s cleaned sections of their adopted highway, raked pine needles from a cemetery and walked dogs at the humane society.

“It’s fun when you have people who you like to be with,” she said. “Nobody minds doing it.”

Henderson has lived in the area all of her life with brothers Thomas, 18, and Joseph, 20. Her mother wants her to attend school away from their home next year as her brothers did for their high school years. Her mother feels the advanced courses require more than she can offer. Henderson thinks that her mother is a good teacher, and has mixed feelings about the plan. Wherever she ends up attending school, she’ll take along the lessons from her animals. They’ve tutored her in patience, persistence and resolve.

“You can’t lose your temper with them,” she said of her dogs. “If you tell them to do something, you have to follow through. They can always learn. They may not want to, but they can always learn.”