I was browsing Craigslist (I frequent the pet section, because I'm hopelessly addicted to animals and I always convince myself that somehow I can help the person out who is looking to rehome their cute little bunny) when I came across this post and it really resonated with me. Pass this along if you feel so inclined, and be sure to give credit where credit is due. I take no credit for the following, I simply say bravo to you, M. Clark (whoever you may be) for saying so eloquently what I feel every day of my life. A commitment is a commitment and a family member is a family member and it is our responsiblity as higher forms of life (as it were...) to care for the lower forms of life, and to treat them with respect and dignity.
On Pet-Dumping
I recently read an online article called "Why You Can't Afford a Dog." The author encouraged families facing financial difficulties to consider the money-saving move of giving up their dog. After all, feeding a dog and providing veterinary care cost an average of $800 per year, and times are tight. The author encouraged dog owners to find temporary foster care for their animals – though what sort of temporary foster care she imagines exists for dogs, I don't know - or to surrender them to already-overcrowded shelters where euthanasia is common.
I was horrified.
I was a dog-loving child. The emotions I felt for my dog were, in my tender years, akin to the emotions adults feel for their babies. I recall two primary fears in early adolescence: the premature death of a parent or sibling, and the inevitable death of my dog. I would have chosen to move to a smaller house, share a bedroom with my two sisters, and never buy another record album before I would have chosen to give up my dog. Fortunately for me, my parents understood that. Once, in my adulthood, my mother said, "I never understood people who would take their children's pets away. What message does that send?"
I can't imagine a parent who wants this to be the message they teach their children: that family members are disposable; that when they become inconvenient, we just throw them away; that material things are more important than living things.
Thinking about taking your dog to the shelter? Consider this before you go.
Things You Should Give Up Before You Abandon the Pet You Promised to Love and Protect:
1. Premium cable TV: $100 - $150/month
Standard cable TV: $39.99 per month.
Cheapo, local-only cable: $10.40/month.
No cable: $0.00 per month.
What you can buy for your dog with your savings:
Taste of the Wild Grain-Free Kibble (high-end!): $38 for a 30-lb bag, which feeds a medium-sized dog for 2 – 3 months.
2. Gym membership: $480/year
Walking up and down the hills of your local park one to two hours per day, plus tossing a stick, playing tug of war, and wrestling with your dog: $0
What you can buy for your dog with your savings:
"Basic Manners" and "Beginning Agility" classes to help him become a better doggie citizen.
3. Cell Phone Plans: $600 per year (low-end) to $1800 per year (high-end, with texting, etc.)
TracFone service: $60/year (Low-end, minimal calling – seriously, that's what I spend, with minutes left over.)
What you can buy for your dog with your savings:
Average healthy-dog veterinary care: $300 - $500/year.
4. Music for your two teenagers:
300 downloads from iTunes: $387 X 2 = $774
Medium-quality iPod: $100 X 2 = $200
Total = $974
Allowing the teenagers to baby-sit and rake leaves until they can afford their own music: $0. (And actually, let's throw in a net gain of, say, $500 for the invaluable lessons about delayed gratification, hard work, and knowing that it's a tough, cold world where Mommy and Daddy won't bail them out all the time.)
What you can buy for your dog with your savings:
Emergency surgery, stitching up, antibiotics, and follow-up care for a hypothetical dog - not my dog; he's not that dumb! - who hypothetically runs into a stick while frolicking in the woods, stabbing himself in the chest: $800.
5. New Honda CR-V: $23,500; use for 5 years = $4,700/year
5-year-old Toyota Corolla: $8,995; use for 5 years = $1799/year.
What you can buy for your dog with your savings: Wow! You can take in grandma's Yorkie, and make him a friend for your dog. Then Grandma can still see him sometimes, even though she's moving into an assisted living community. That will make her so happy!
6. Your Credit Cards: Cost on a $10,000 balance at 10% = $13,777 over 16 years
Cost on a 10,000 balance at 20% = 22,241 over 25 years.
Cost of buying something with $10,000 cash: $10,000.
What you can buy for your dog and Grandma's dog with your savings:
Fur coats, caviar, manicures, and spa treatments.
If you love your children, show them that you honor your commitments. Teach them that we care for the less powerful gently and with compassion. There are always smaller houses, smaller cars, and less expensive food. There is never, never another family member to replace a pet carelessly tossed away.
Copyright 2009 by M. Clark
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Showing posts with label animals. Show all posts
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
Camera Wonders
I just plugged my camera into my computer and I am overcome with a desire to post my fvourite pictures on my memory card. I have something near 900 pictures on the memory card, and these are my favorites by far!
Rob and I being amazing
The waves don't care if your bathing suit is coming off, but your best friends think it's HILARIOUS
Puppy!
My friends being awesome on a bridge in central park
Kitty
Kitty at one of our tea parties
Buns!
The pictures make me miss summer, but at least I have a piece of home here with me, and lots and lots of fabulous memories!
Rob and I being amazing
The waves don't care if your bathing suit is coming off, but your best friends think it's HILARIOUS
Puppy!
My friends being awesome on a bridge in central park
Kitty
Kitty at one of our tea parties
Buns!
The pictures make me miss summer, but at least I have a piece of home here with me, and lots and lots of fabulous memories!
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Everything We Have
I consider myself an animal lover. There were always animals in our home from the time I was born until the present. When I was an infant until around the time that my father died (when I was eight) we had two cats: Kashi (a beautiful white with orange markings, the only word coming to mind to describe her being simply elegant) and Ducky (a Himalayan type cat who was in shows but had been dumped on the highway. My parents rescued her and she never left my father's side, dying a within a week of him). We took in my grandmothers black cat Ashley when grandma couldn't keep her anymore. Grandma had two cats for as long as I could remember Ashley (a total bitch if you ask me) and Eli (the sweetest cat you ever met). Kashi and Ducky didn't last long after my father died, but unfortunately Ashley did.
When I was five or so we adopted a rotteweiler named Cody from the human society, but he had to be taken back within a month or so because he bit my face. He was a real trip. We went back to give a dog another try and found Candy, the greatest dog you could ever ask for.
When my father was alive I also had a hamster named Rex and a Guinea Pig named Johnny (after a boy named Johnny France who I did karate with when I was younger). Johnny and Candy were the last animals to go who had been around when my father was alive. I was absolutely devastated when Candy died two days before my sixteenth birthday.
When we had just Ashley, Candy and Johnny we started adopting cats. First was Baby (an adorable black and white kitten) and Precious (an older stray cat who adjusted alright to indoor living). Then was Little Boy, the only male cat we've ever had and will probably ever have because he is a brute. Then Plato, a kitten with double paws who we stumbled upon at the vet. Then Suzy, a beautiful calico cat who needed a home after her owner passed away. Suzy unfortunately never adjusted to living in a home with multiple animals and lived basically in solitary confinement for the majority of the rest of her life. When she was dying a stayed home from school to hold her until she slipped away, it was one of the saddest but gentlest acts of my life.
Then we found Kitty, a blind kitten whose mother had been killed by a car and who was the only member of her litter to survive. Kitty was very small, with clear neurological problems. She is mostly grey, with white arms and legs and a white mask on her face. She is a beautiful cat, and she is all mine. She had a cute pink nose and pink pads on her feet. She can be tempermental but I know she loves me all the same. None of the other cats bonded with me the way that Kitty did.
We also adopted Buns, an orange haired rabbit who has become a fast friend of mine. My friends gave me a dwarf rabbit for my sixteenth birthday (to take my mind off of Candy's death) who I named Russel, but who never bonded with me the way that Buns did.
When I was in the eighth grade we adopted a puppy, who I named... Puppy (I'm so clever, I know) to give Candy back some of the spunk she was loosing in her old age. It worked completely, but Puppy could never take Candy's place as my best friend. Candy was also pretty motherly to me, herding me around, making sure I stayed out of trouble, but she was never motherly to Puppy. Puppy was always just kind of a nuisance to Candy (and to everyone else for that matter).
We still have Puppy, Kitty, Plato, Buns, Russel, Little Boy, Baby and Precious, and we will have all of them until it's their time. When Kitty dies I will have a broken heart for a VERY long time. But let's not think about that.
I started this entry to talk about my love of animals.
We have a pool, and with pools come creatures who like to swim or who are thirsty. Over the years we've had baby birds, baby rabbits, mice, and thousands and thousands of frogs. We've saved most, and we've cried over those who were beyond saving.
Yesterday my mother was cleaning out the basket in the skimmer and happened upon a terrible sight: a dead frog. She showed it to me and I saw her lip quiver and tears begin to well up. In the basket was a frog, not moving, but with eyes wide.
"Mom, he's alive"
"No, he's dead Rachel."
"Mom! He's alive, give him to me," so I reached in the basket and picked up the limp frog. It spat up some pale green water and looked at me. I took it in both hands, to prevent it from hopping out suddenly, and laid down on the grass to let it go under our azaelea bush.
But it wouldn't hop out of my hands. I was afraid its legs were broken, so I gave it a few little nudges. When I put it down on the grass it only backed up a little to sit on my hands. At one point it turned itself around to look at me.
I believe in karma. I believe everything has a place in the universe, even the smallest frog, or even the tallest tree. Throw that frog out with the leaves and the rubbish and life will do the same to you. Cut that tree down and life will cut you down.
That frog was thanking me, no matter what anyone says, it was thanking me. I sat with it for about 20 minutes probably, just talking to it, assuring it that I wasn't going to hurt it and that I was going to do everything I could to make sure it didn't get hurt. I wasn't going to cage it up so it would be safe forever in my care, that's not the way nature works.
My cats/rabbits/dogs would die if they were left to their own devices. This little frog got a second chance, and I hope wherever he is he is happy, healthy, and enjoying the opportunity he has. Life is a great gift, no matter in what capacity it is granted.
When I was five or so we adopted a rotteweiler named Cody from the human society, but he had to be taken back within a month or so because he bit my face. He was a real trip. We went back to give a dog another try and found Candy, the greatest dog you could ever ask for.
When my father was alive I also had a hamster named Rex and a Guinea Pig named Johnny (after a boy named Johnny France who I did karate with when I was younger). Johnny and Candy were the last animals to go who had been around when my father was alive. I was absolutely devastated when Candy died two days before my sixteenth birthday.
When we had just Ashley, Candy and Johnny we started adopting cats. First was Baby (an adorable black and white kitten) and Precious (an older stray cat who adjusted alright to indoor living). Then was Little Boy, the only male cat we've ever had and will probably ever have because he is a brute. Then Plato, a kitten with double paws who we stumbled upon at the vet. Then Suzy, a beautiful calico cat who needed a home after her owner passed away. Suzy unfortunately never adjusted to living in a home with multiple animals and lived basically in solitary confinement for the majority of the rest of her life. When she was dying a stayed home from school to hold her until she slipped away, it was one of the saddest but gentlest acts of my life.
Then we found Kitty, a blind kitten whose mother had been killed by a car and who was the only member of her litter to survive. Kitty was very small, with clear neurological problems. She is mostly grey, with white arms and legs and a white mask on her face. She is a beautiful cat, and she is all mine. She had a cute pink nose and pink pads on her feet. She can be tempermental but I know she loves me all the same. None of the other cats bonded with me the way that Kitty did.
We also adopted Buns, an orange haired rabbit who has become a fast friend of mine. My friends gave me a dwarf rabbit for my sixteenth birthday (to take my mind off of Candy's death) who I named Russel, but who never bonded with me the way that Buns did.
When I was in the eighth grade we adopted a puppy, who I named... Puppy (I'm so clever, I know) to give Candy back some of the spunk she was loosing in her old age. It worked completely, but Puppy could never take Candy's place as my best friend. Candy was also pretty motherly to me, herding me around, making sure I stayed out of trouble, but she was never motherly to Puppy. Puppy was always just kind of a nuisance to Candy (and to everyone else for that matter).
We still have Puppy, Kitty, Plato, Buns, Russel, Little Boy, Baby and Precious, and we will have all of them until it's their time. When Kitty dies I will have a broken heart for a VERY long time. But let's not think about that.
I started this entry to talk about my love of animals.
We have a pool, and with pools come creatures who like to swim or who are thirsty. Over the years we've had baby birds, baby rabbits, mice, and thousands and thousands of frogs. We've saved most, and we've cried over those who were beyond saving.
Yesterday my mother was cleaning out the basket in the skimmer and happened upon a terrible sight: a dead frog. She showed it to me and I saw her lip quiver and tears begin to well up. In the basket was a frog, not moving, but with eyes wide.
"Mom, he's alive"
"No, he's dead Rachel."
"Mom! He's alive, give him to me," so I reached in the basket and picked up the limp frog. It spat up some pale green water and looked at me. I took it in both hands, to prevent it from hopping out suddenly, and laid down on the grass to let it go under our azaelea bush.
But it wouldn't hop out of my hands. I was afraid its legs were broken, so I gave it a few little nudges. When I put it down on the grass it only backed up a little to sit on my hands. At one point it turned itself around to look at me.
I believe in karma. I believe everything has a place in the universe, even the smallest frog, or even the tallest tree. Throw that frog out with the leaves and the rubbish and life will do the same to you. Cut that tree down and life will cut you down.
That frog was thanking me, no matter what anyone says, it was thanking me. I sat with it for about 20 minutes probably, just talking to it, assuring it that I wasn't going to hurt it and that I was going to do everything I could to make sure it didn't get hurt. I wasn't going to cage it up so it would be safe forever in my care, that's not the way nature works.
My cats/rabbits/dogs would die if they were left to their own devices. This little frog got a second chance, and I hope wherever he is he is happy, healthy, and enjoying the opportunity he has. Life is a great gift, no matter in what capacity it is granted.
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