09/08/2024
If you or someone you know is a pet parent that lives alone with pets, PLEASE make sure that you have plans for your pets in the event that you die before they do. Each day with your pets is a gift for you. But every minute that they spend with your lifeless body is a nightmare for them. They are incapable of understanding why you stopped moving. Or why they aren't being fed & watered. They don't want to p*e or p**p in the house, but they do, knowing that you'll be disappointed in them. Hopefully your body is found quickly. Someone calls for a wellbeing check because you haven't been seen or heard from you in a couple of days or longer. Then comes all of the police and EMS/ambulance workers. Loud voices, radios going off. Everyone is rushing around at first. The dogs don't understand whats happening, but they know something terribly wrong is going on. The police notify us, animal control, that there are pets in the home that need to be picked up and cared for accordingly. We arrive on scene. We know about the deceased owner. We try to calm the pets to the best of our abilities, which seems almost impossible. They're scared. Rightfully so. We take a quick look on the refrigerator door and in the egg tray of the refrigerator to see if the owner had left any emergency contact information for the pets. Nothing is found in either place. At this point we know absolutely nothing about the animals in the home. The dogs weren't licensed, so we don't know their names, ages, or if they are up to date. We know nothing of their medical history. We don't know what they love or what they dislike. Since we can't locate this information, we pray that someone will know the next of kin and we'll get that important information. What? No next of kin? No known relatives... Back to square one. On the other hand, we find the next of kin. Lives a distance away. Knows nothing about the pets. Can't or won't take the pets. Has no knowledge of any medical conditions or brand of foods fed to the pets. No known next of kin? Now we have to hold the dogs in the kennel and place an ad in the local paper looking for any living relatives. No one answers the ad in the coming 10 days. Back to square one. And the dogs are so confused about life. They don't understand why they went from living a great life at home to this. Kennel life. It's awful. They start getting depressed and its showing. Now we try to locate an honorable rescue or a family to accept these damaged babies. And damaged they are. They're broken. Their hearts need fixing. Their minds need mending. Time. They'll need time to adjust, right? Thats what we all say. They'll just need time. Well let me tell you something. These dogs don't just heal on their own. They need lots of help, for a long time. But don't worry, dear reader. With the right people involved, they will eventually heal from their tragic loss of their beloved companion, you. The process is long and oftentimes even painful for them. Much of this process can be alleviated. I truly hope and pray that you don't pass away before your pets. But if you do, and especially if you live alone with them, please, for the sake of your dogs, cats, caged pets, fish and whatever else you may have, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE take the time to write out an itemized list of all of the pets inside AND outside of the home. Let us know the type of pets, the breed, the ages, the s*x, any medical conditions, any veterinary information, any do's and don'ts. List other living relatives and contact information that you want to have charge of your pet's care or their disposition. If you know that there are no other living relatives or people to care for your pets immediately upon your death, leave us a note stating as such and give us the legal right to re-home your pets. Basically, leave us everything that you feel we should know about your loved ones and how you want us to care for them. Leave this in an envelope on your refrigerator door titled "PETS", or in a sealed plastic container in or under your egg compartment in the refrigerator. I promise you; I will look for that information, in those locations. Please, for the love of your animals, help me help your pets.
