Holiday Thoughts & Giving

As a child I would frequently start my annual wishing for a dog around the time of my birthday in Oct, and would accelerate that wishing as only a child can straight through to Christmas Eve. My parents would smile and tell me the old story of how they used to have a dog but had to give him away when I was born because he liked to jump in the crib, their explanations were peppered with reasons that now make sense but at the time I did not want to hear. I mean so what if they both had to work and there was no one around to dependably take care of a dog, I wanted a dog…..

When I was nine years old they let me pick out a cat from a new litter in a neighboring town, I picked the multi-colored cat out of a the litter where all the rest of the kittens were yellow. So we took the kitten home and because it was mine my parents and sister only put up mild objections to naming her Stuffy. I loved the cat and even at nine took on the cleaning of the litter box and occasional brushing. We had Stuffy for 16 or 17 years and she taught me many things about animals and love.

With a cat at home my love of animals kept growing and I would run into 6 or 7 dogs in the next 10 years that would have a profound impact in how I viewed the treatment of pets. The first one was a beagle who lived a couple of hundred yards down our street, he was chained up in front of a little dog house situated next to an apartment house. The beagle who I a 10 year old little boy would name Ow-u did not bark or whine he just sat in his yard watching everyone coming and going. One day I crossed the lawn and went to visit him, I ended up returning over and over to chat with him and feed him milk bones I had bought with money from my paper route. We became fast friends for a year and a half till his owners moved away. In all that time I think I was the only person who spent time with him other then his daily feeding. it broke my heart when he went away just as his loneliness broke my heart when I walked by his house.

Animals deserve to live with people who have the time, patience and love to take care of them, they are not toys or things we buy and then push in the back of some closet when a new shinny toy comes along. Too many people neglect their animals and that’s why more and more shelters sprout up every year to meet this horrible crisis.

During this holiday season please direct some of your giving to animal shelters so they can continue the generous work they do everyday. Giving just 2 or 3 dollars to a couple of shelters will brighten the lives of some forgotten pet. Please visit a couple of shelter websites and make a donation today…  Thanks….