All the Creatures

When this housing crisis first began a few years ago, I kept hearing horror stories of pets being left in foreclosed homes and found either dead or close to death by realtors weeks later. Pets have taken the brunt of this bad economy.

People who lost their jobs and then their homes have no resources left for their pets that they acquired years before and expected to keep them for the pet’s entire lifespan. Most pets rescues turned them away because they were overcrowded. Then some of the rescues had to shut their doors forever due to lack of donations. Rental homes and apartments would not allow pets or if they did they added a sizable cleaning fee to the deposit that someone who just lost about everything could not afford. So abandonment seemed like the only way to handle their pet situation.

Amidst all of this, I hear on tonight’s nightly news that there is a boom in spending on dogs. Where in the creation are these people getting their information from? Certainly not from those who are in charge of animal control in this country. Although I do see ads for Cape Cod rentals pet friendly that for $1500 a week you can take your dog with you but first add at least $300 in fees. Those places are not aimed toward the middle class income families but the more wealthy among us.

There seems to such extremes with this economy right now and our pets are the victims of it.

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No doubt you have seen that TV show “Extreme Couponing” where a family goes shopping and pays only a few dollars for their $900+ grocery bill. What I have yet to see is any dog food, cat food or livestock feed go into that grocery cart. What us pet owners need is an Extreme Couponing show to save money on our expenses.

I do know a few tricks that help me save money on pet food. I visit the pet food manufactures websites and they often have coupons or “clubs” you can join to get coupons or samples sent to your home. Many of them have programs where you save the “proof of purchase” and send it in to them for a coupon worth a free bag of what ever you were buying.

Being that I have been a large pet (read this as horse) owner for quite some time now, I still wonder why I get emails forwarded to me by my friends that have links in them for nail saloons (the last time I had my nails done, I broke them all trying to separate 2 dogs from killing each other) and victoria’s secret coupons. Let’s face it, when there is a sick animal in the barn at night I need PJ’s to scramble out of bed in and not some flimsy lacy thing.

So if you are forwarding coupons to your pet owning friends, please send something they can really use.

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Last night was one of those boring nights on TV. You know the type, 160 channels and nothing worth watching. So I began to channel surf. It was then I found a most unusual TV show called “Ratbusters.” It was a reality show about an extermination company in New York City. As I watched the show, it was interesting. The ratbusters were a bit entertaining. One of them didn’t like snakes and there was suppose to be one loose in the house. He spotted a  braided metal hose in the basement and almost flipped out. Then I discovered that the show was on Animal Planet! Since when does Animal Planet encourage the extermination of any creature? Ratbusters was something that might be shown on the Discovery Channel or even the Home channel but on Animal Planet?

Maybe I am overreacting but if that show is on Animal Planet what would be next? A fishing or hunting program? Wait, I think they do that already with Hillbilly Handfishin’ and Swamp Wars. Yes Animal Planet has started to dig up the dregs with reality TV. I guess all it has to have is an animal in the show somewhere for it to air on Animal Planet now. I can think of 100’s of better animal shows that they could do than what they are airing right now.

Come on Animal Planet………………….wake up.

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