Monday, March 21, 2011

Spring Fever: Spay and Neuter Your Pets

Rudy playing keep-away
I have spring fever. Yesterday our forsythia bushes promised a yellow blaze of glory for today and temperatures climbed to almost 80 degrees. We all heaved a sigh of relief that the long, unusually snowy and cold, winter seems to be coming to an end. Finally. It almost seems safe now to pack away the dog coats and boots.

All four canines spent most of the day outdoors. Tucker did quite a bit of sun bathing and blissful napping in the ever greening grass. Lucy enjoyed patrols with me as I checked flowers, shrubs and fruit trees. Jeffie and Rudy enjoyed jolly ball and frisbe games both with and without Gary and I. It was a beautiful spring day.

However, this morning I'm mindful that with spring comes the deluge of puppies and kittens at animal shelters. 

About one million puppies are born in Missouri each year according to the Humane Society of Missouri.  In fact, each day, 70,000 kittens and puppies are born in the United States.  Thousands of these end up unwanted, wandering the streets.  Many of them perpetuate the problem by breeding and having babies of their own.  Too many of them end up at animal shelters where they wait, hoping for a forever home.

At For Love of a Dog, all four of our dogs today are products of unintentional breeding.  Of course, I'm glad that they were born.  I can't imagine life without them.   However, from time to time, I wonder about their littermates.  I tend to doubt they all got so lucky.
So, in the midst of delicious spring fever, I'm thinking about spay and neuter.  Rudy will be heading to the vet next month for a bit of a snip to his boy parts.  None of our dogs will be contributing to the homelessness of another generation.

Spay and neuter your pets.  It's the responsible thing to do.

1 comment:

  1. Hi Y'all,

    As a dog, let me tell you, I didn't appreciate the vet visit! However, I must admit, life is much less frustrating now. The way my Human keeps an eagle eye on me, I know I'd be miserable!

    Y'all come by now,
    Hawk aka BrownDog

    P.S. the reference to the Human's "eagle" eye was intentional

    ReplyDelete

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