3 Labs And A Beagle: The Chewie; December 2008

Happy holiday, happy holiday – everywhere in the air is the sound of our favorite old time carols as our neighborhoods are being dressed up with coats of frost and holiday lights. Gone are the warm days and nights, replaced with chilly temperatures, rosy cheeks and naked trees. Brrrrr! This is my favorite time of year and my dogs know it. They are as excited about seeing the first snow of the year as I am because they know they can play and play all day in it and come in to sit on a nice warm blanket by the fireplace when they are tuckered out. My dogs are cherished. They are spoiled. They are lucky. Many dogs and cats in this country are not so lucky. They are homeless. They are feral. They are scared to death and starving. Why?

Why when there are low cost and no cost spay and neuter clinics everywhere? We have hundreds of No Kill shelters and organizations like petfinder.com to help advertise four-legged critters looking for new humans. So, why are there still feral kittens? Why are puppies found in garbage dumpsters barely alive? Are we so lazy? So uneducated? Nope, it is even more elementary. It boils down to that small rectangular piece of paper that drives our country and our lives. Money.

Just as our country is finally slowing down the pace of euthanizing unwanted animals – according to Best Friends –“… from a rate of 17 Million a year in 1987 to under 5 Million a year currently…” we Americans start abandoning our best friends at an alarming rate. A new epidemic of homeless animals is due to people “losing” their homes due to foreclosures. Good grief. If you can’t pay your mortgage and you have to move out of your home, do you leave your grandma there when you leave? No, of course not. So why would you leave your cat? Or your dog? Are they are going to take over payments for you? Keep an eye on the place? Come on people, stop treating your pets like they are boxes to be put out on the curb for the recycling van. Take care of them and when you need a friend, they will love you. Whether you are driving a luxury SUV or a teeny, tiny but paid for beater car with the fenders falling off, your furry friends love you. Love them back. Please. How?

Set a plan for your pet to practice safe doggie and kitty sex (which is no sex whatsoever): spay and neuter them as soon as your vet will do so to eliminate the unwanted and unloved. If you have pets and are losing your home, you have several months before your home is repossessed. Look for homes for them. Look for rentals that allow pets. They exist. Work with no-kill shelters to advertise your pet while he still lives with you so that the shelter doesn’t have to house yet another animal. Do something. Yes, losing your home is stressful. So is being left tied to the tree while your humans hop in the moving van and drive off. Please cherish these furry babies. For if we cannot cherish those who cannot feed themselves, drive or articulate their problems, who do we cherish? This is what all those carols are about: loving each other – and that means our furry friends too

Care for your pets, they can't do it alone