Think About It – By Mike Rogozinski
Coquitlam Now. Friday, January 2, 2007. Page 12
A pet is a gift for its lifetime, not just the present
Sometimes the best thing we get for Christmas is a gift receipt. If we tear open a present and decide it’s not the perfect color or style, or it’s an item we just don’t want, we can take it back and pick out something that’s more to our liking. But, you really shouldn’t take that approach if Santa left an animal under the tree. A pet is a lifelong commitment and it shouldn’t be discarded just because the particular animal isn’t currently in fashion or someone gets bored of it once the novelty wears off.
Like every year, a lot of kids woke up to discover Santa left a pet for them. He should have left a gift certificate for an animal rescue group or shelter so the kids can pick out their own companion to make sure it’s a good match, but occasionally he has a few too many rum and eggnogs and his sense of smarts gets washed away. It’s too bad he didn’t think ahead, but what’s done is done.
In most cases, the children are ecstatic about having a pet and uphold their promise to look after it, play with it and love it unconditionally. Everything works out well and the animal gets to live its entire life in a good home surrounded by a loving and attentive family. That’s the way it should be, but some kids quickly grow tired of their new pet because it isn’t exactly what they thought they wanted, or they realize it’s too much work to look after it. After a short while their disappointment turns to indifference and the poor animal is left ignored and all but forgotten.
Parents inevitably grow tired of listening to their children vocalizing their disappointment and the hassle of having to look after the pet themselves, so they drop it off at a shelter under the false assumption that someone else will take it home. In fairy tale land that always happens, but in the real world orphaned pets are usually either euthanized or sentenced to live their lives in a tiny cell. The cute and cuddly baby animals usually get adopted first, and by the time someone gets around to orphaning their Christmas present, the once little animal has already grown past that stage. Older animals occasionally do get adopted, but the odds are against them.
Leaving an animal at a no kill shelter ensures the pet that is now apparently nothing more than an inconvenience gets to live to a ripe old age, but instead of being continually surrounded by a loving family as it should be, the poor thing sleeps in a cage and the only affection it receives is from the shelter staff and volunteers. They dote on the animals and give them as much love and attention as they can, but there are too few staff and just too many animals.
Maybe I have too big of a heart or take my commitments more seriously than some people, but I can’t even fathom not keeping an animal once it’s spent a night in my home. When my wife and I adopted our cat I told her I took my responsibility as a pet owner as seriously as I take my wedding vows; ‘till death do us part. That may sound overly dramatic, but I don’t think of a pet as an accessory or toy used to pass the time. To me, a pet is truly part of the family and shouldn’t be tossed away because some magazine says they are no longer in style or they become a bit of an inconvenience. Pets are part of the family, and families stick together. Besides, if people got rid of every member of the family that occasionally caused them grief we’d all be living alone.
Mike Rogozinski lives in Port Coquitlam and always tells it like it is. Comments? Email him at mike.rogozinski@hotmail.com
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