On Pet-Dumping

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

A Giant Leap for Equality

I was at church this evening for my last service before heading across the pond. I gave my pastor a great big hug, knowing how much we're going to miss each other and how much I'm going to miss the church community. Pastor is a wonderful man who has taught me so much about living my life as a spiritual person, his retirement in February is going to be one of the hardest losses of my life. He can't step foot in the church for five years after he retires, which is a church rule in order for the new pastor to become familiar with the congregation. I sure am going to miss him though, but when I get back from London I'll be church shopping near the new apartment. Hopefully I'll be lucky enough to find a congregation as warm as the one I am leaving behind, but no one will ever be able to replace pastor.

It took me a while to get out of church tonight, as everyone was talking with me about London and wishing me well and I was saying my goodbyes. Mom said she thought pastor was getting a little misty when he was saying his goodbyes to me, and I wouldn't doubt it because I was too. I cried like a baby as I drove myself home tonight. I haven't gone four months without going to church since I was baptised.

However, I wasn't so much crying because I am going to miss pastor, the congregation, the feeling I get when I sing a hymn or look up at the cross in the pulpit. Pastor told me, as I was leaving, that the church (the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America) recently (this week!!) voted to stop discriminatory practices in regard to sexual orientation. That means that gays and lesbians are now able to be married in the church by an ordained Lutheran minister, gays and lesbians can serve openly as ordained ministers AND be in committed relationships with their spouses. Previously, gays and lesbians could serve as ordained ministers BUT they had to be abstinant, and church policy was that gay and lesbian commitment ceremonies or weddings wouldn't be church sponsored.

This is the. best. news. EVER! I'm so happy for the church, it literally made me weepy, so my tears were a mix of sadness at leaving and happiness that the church is finally entering the 21st century (they skipped right over the 19th and 20th and moved right into the 21st! big steps for a conservative, old fashioned organization). This bodes very well for my interest in becoming a pastor, something I need to discuss with my pastor when I get back from London. I love research and psychology but I've always felt called to serve God and it's not something I can deny. I'm just glad I no longer have to choose between serving God as an ordained individual and being true to myself. I'm also relieved that, if I want to, I can be married in my own church by my own pastor and have a marriage recognized by my church.

It's a wonderful feeling to be accepted. Somewhere in heaven Jesus is saying "now stop persecuting the homos and start feeding the hungry!"

A Sad Loss for Human Rights

I'm not the biggest fan of the Kennedy family, for no reason other than the fact that they are alarmingly wealthy and powerful and alarmingly wealthy and powerful people/entities scare the sh*t out of me. That being said, it is too bad that Ted Kennedy lost his battle with brain cancer (a particularly atrocious type of cancer, no matter how young, old, accomplished, unknown you are, it just plain sucks) and that the U.S. senate lost such a champion of human rights. It's also very unfortunate that Obama and those working dilligently on a health care reform bill won't have the advice and knowledge of Ted Kennedy, and also that Mr. Kennedy won't be able to witness health care being provided to all Americans.

It's hard to get by Ted Kennedy's past, and even harder to get beyond the fact that he comes from one of the wealthiest families this country has ever known, and one of the most politically active. It is evident, though, in many of the Kennedys and the way in which they live their lives, that though they were blessed with emerald spoons in their mouths from birth, they know that the only way one can get in to Heaven is to take care of one's neighbour and that he who has "most" has least in the eyes of God unless he shares his wealth with others.

Oh, and happy anniversary of the 19th Amendment. Next year will be the 90 year anniversary of women's suffrage. It was a long time coming. It's ironic that Ted Kennedy, a champion of human rights in general but a fierce advocate of women and our rights would die on a day like today. So it goes.