Pets and the Economy

I read an article in the paper today... Left Behind. It was about how the economy is forcing people to give up their pets. The article said that people were losing their homes, being forced to rent apartments where pets weren't allowed, or simply couldn't afford to take care of them or feed them.

Then, on the way home, NPR reported from Louisville, where even horses were being abandoned. One had been tied to a telephone pole. Truly - left behind.

This resonates with me. My dogs aren't going homeless anytime soon, but I have had to let their shots lapse last year, while I was working so hard on my debt. This year I resolved to end the neglect, but I stagger their visits. Petey went to the vet this month. Mollie will go next month. He was in good health, beyond some minor issues surrounding his age (he's around 10). I hope Mollie will be the same.

And I have to be honest. They probably would have gone a little longer without attention had Mollie not gotten a little rough with Petey earlier this month, giving him a nice shiner. But it was time. I am going to need to board both dogs at various times this year, so they have to have current shots. Dominoes. Everything kind of builds on itself, doesn't it?

The point is, people are having to make tough decisions these days. Some decisions have to be fairly easy. One can make a game out of clipping coupons or buckling down to pay off a credit card as I'm doing. You can always put off buying a new pair of shoes.

But how does someone let go of a friend and a companion? I remember the footage they took following Hurricane Katrina, when people were forced to leave pets behind in order to evacuate. People had found ways to tote their animals through all the flood waters and chaos of those days, only to leave the small, helpless animal running after them half-heartedly when they rode away on the bus. And I remember how they chronicled the story of one elderly man as he returned to his old home in hopes of finding his cat. He'd been going back time and time again to locate her. And when he found her at last, and had her in his arms, he stood in the center of his shamble of a house and burst into tears. His house was in ruins. Most of his wordly possessions had been destroyed. And none of it mattered. His cat was safe, and clearly delighted to see him.

The rest was replaceable. His friend and companion just wasn't replaceable. Maybe you'd call that man's persistence silly and irrational. But I disagree. I think he'd lived long enough, and probably lost enough, to know what was truly important and what truly was not. He knew what he could afford to lose and what he truly could not. I don't think he was silly or irrational. I think he was tough. And I have a feeling that newly unabandoned cat felt pretty special.

I know times mandate tough choices. Just this evening, the news reported how there were so many people trying to certify their unemployment benefits that it shut down the phone lines in metro Atlanta. But sometimes, the fall out from this economy hits us in ways we can't predict. Remember what's important.

--Laura