Man's Best Friend...Really?

There are very few sights to rival a rambunctious puppy rampaging your hall or a kitten playing with a ball of yarn. The fact that seems to be passing many people is that eventually the puppies and kittens grow up! A pet is a commitment you make for the pet's lifetime. It is a member of the family and should be taken care of for better or for worse.

There seem to be scores of people in America that don't seem to agree. The shelters around the country are bursting at the seams, with neglected and abandoned pets. The up keep of a dog or a cat isn't really much. We have two dogs and since they are walked and looked after properly, cost us only as much as their food and annual vaccination. Sure you could say that dog food is expensive and that it is. However, you should have known that when you got the pet!

If you are considering giving up your pet due to cost cutting, consider this:

Bulk buy your pet food and look for offers. We swear by Nutro for the value for money. They also have the buy 10 get one free offer. Some stores like Petco, have clearance sales for these products too. Just the other day, there was a $5 discount on each bag of Nutro, so instead of picking up our usual 2 bags, we picked up 4 bags and to the $ 20 dollars we had already saved on the food we added $ 4 of additional discount we had received from Nutro. A saving of $ 24!

Low cost veterinary services: Stores offer low cost veterinary services or have affiliations with hospital that offer such reasonable services. You can access some of these sites below:

Petco: http://www.petco.com/petco_Page_PC_veterinaryservices_Nav_132.aspx

Banfield hospital in association with PetSmart: http://www.banfield.net/hospital-locator

If you are considering giving up your pet due to the fact that you lost your house: Find a place that's pet friendly. Pets don't take up much place and will be glad to stay in a small dingy apartment with you through your bad times. If they can see you through your bad time, shame on you for showing them the door.

Besides the above mentioned two points and demise of the owner, I cannot imagine why people would abandon their four legged family members! Both our dogs, Ash (3 year old, male, yellow lab mix) and (5 year old, female, flat coated retriever mix) are "second hand dogs" Ash was abandoned because the owner "Couldn't take care of him, because he was too much to handle" Trudy was adopted from our favorite shelter Animal House Shelter in Huntley, IL, who had rescued Trudy from a high-kill shelter. We aren't sure how she managed to land herself there, but the only reason I can assume is that she was owned by a senior citizen that passed away. She is such a good, well mannered girl, I'd imagine she was living with a kindly old Granma that over fed her pooch.

Don't abandon your pets! There always are alternatives.

If you're looking to adopt, adopt a shelter animal. Beisdes being great pets, they come with financial incentives. These vary from shetler to shelter, but it is cheaper and morally nicer to get a shelter pet. You won't regret it. If you live in Illinois, you can check out,

http://www.animalhouseshelter.com. Brutus the St. Bernard from the above picture and many more dogs and cats are curently up for adoption there.