I have a small but useful gift for you and your pet(s). It was actually my dad’s idea but I thought I’d use this forum to pass it along to you and yours.
Our house probably isn’t all that much different that yours, 200 or so dogs not withstanding. Dad’s usually wide open in one direction and mom’s wide open in another. Dad works 12 hour shifts at the mill, which means that he’s gone for about 15 hours on workdays and mom’s always running. Either she’s pulling dogs from animal control’s death row, picking up owner relinquished pets (a number that seems to be constantly on the rise as the economy stagnates), making vet runs, picking up shelter supplies or conducting mobile adoptions. During those times when they’re both gone, they always plan ahead for our safety, comfort and well-being. Some of us have kennels with igloos, fans, pools and plenty of food and water (I still hate mine) while others are segregated into homogenous groups in the house with access to one of several fenced yards (that way, if the power goes out, they’re not trapped in an overheated house). They seem to have it all pretty much covered but, what if something unexpected were to happen? Let’s take right now for an example. Mom’s off at an adoption and dad’s working nights. Mom won’t be home for a few days yet but dad will be rolling in come morning to let us out of our kennels so we can take a big old nap with him but……..what if something were to happen to him? What if he got hurt at work or got into a wreck? I know that humans, like dogs, eventually die and to be honest, the old boy’s not getting any younger. What would happen to us if he didn’t come home?
Nowadays, most everybody has their emergency contact information on their cell phone (or if they don’t, they should) but, to the best of my knowledge, there’s no place there to enter information about your pets who are depending on you. Even if you have listed as emergency contacts people who know that you have pets at home, they may not stop to think about them in the moment. Usually when emergencies happen, everyone gets excited and anxious and it may be some time, if ever, before someone thinks to check on the dogs on a 103 degree day. Fortunately, there is a low tech solution available and this is my small gift to you and your furry friends. By clicking on one of the following links, You can download and print two different emergency notifications informing authorities that you have pets at home and that they may need help too.
http://www.2ndchance4pets.org/idcards.pdf
http://www.potterleague.org/Portals/0/Uploads/Documents/Emergency%20%20ID%20Cards2.pdf
You’ll need Adobe Reader to view them. If you don’t already have it, click here; http://get.adobe.com/reader/ for a free download. The bigger form is for posting in a likely location in your home and the wallet-sized one is for, well, your wallet. I would recommend printing them on some durable paper and either laminating them or using some kind of document protector. I know that the last thing that you’d want is to get into a wreck and spend a few days in intensive care and then, finally getting back home, finding all of your best friends dead so please, for your pet’s sake and yours, take a minute and get this done. If you have difficulty downloading or printing or whatever, drop me an email and I’d be more than happy to assist in any way that I’m able.
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