Bloggin’ with Mr. Biscuit

It’s been a long-standing rule in the rescue community not to allow pets to be given as Christmas gifts, or as gifts for any occasion.  This is something I just don’t understand – maybe because I’m a dog and being a Christmas gift sounds like fun to me! 

Of course having a pet is serious business, just ask my mom – she has to make arrangements for me to be taken care of when she goes out of town (and she says it’s expensive - whatever that means), she can’t stay out all night unless I’ve been fed and taken out to use the lawn, and well of course there are vet visits (more of the green paper stuff), lots of hiking and bike riding (otherwise I get dog-house fever), squeaky toys, and well, food, food, and more food. 

But who’s to say that the family that wants to surprise their kids with a new furry family member, or the person that wants a new furry companion to snuggle with over the holidays isn’t just as serious about their decision to get a pet as the average Joe that shows up at an weekend adoption event?  (I don’t know anyone named Joe, but I heard that saying somewhere).

If it were me, I would set something up where Santa would deliver the new pet to the family on Christmas – imagine how much fun that would be!  They would still have to do the adoption questionnaire, complete a home check and all of the other things required to adopt a pet, but that would just be done in advance.   

Of course giving a pet to someone as surprise or picking out a pet for someone else isn’t always a good idea. For one, not everyone is really ready for a pet, and if they were, they would probably already have one.  I’ve heard about boyfriends and girlfriends that brake- up, or the mom that doesn’t really like the dog you picked out, and then we’re punished by being given up, or even worse, taken to the shelter.  I’m not sure how we’re the ones that get the short end of the stick (another thing I once heard – but I’m not really sure what sticks have to do with anything).  I’m just a dog, but it seems to me that you could have pet gift certificates that are refundable incase the adopter doesn’t pass all of the necessary adoption requirements – but I guess that could get a little sticky (yet another crazy expression – what gets sticky exactly???), but I’m sure a lot of those questions could be asked of the person buying the certificate prior to selling it, so that most of the time it would work out. 

I’m just trying to think of more ways to help my fellow ruffs and purrs that still need homes…meanwhile I’ll just get back to dreaming about opening my holiday presents - Happy Holidays!!!    

This entry was posted on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 at 9:19 am and is filed under Pets as Gifts. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.