The Golden Years

PET OWNERSHIP | EDUCATION | AGING PETS

Age-old truths about wise old dogs

This is a painful blog to write but an important one. My story begins while waiting for a job interview at a high-kill animal shelter. It was for a position I was excited about and thought I stood a good chance of landing. As I paced the lobby, I watched what I thought were prospective dog owners walking potential new family members around the courtyard. What I witnessed next still brings me to tears.

A well-dressed couple arrived in a luxury car that cost more than most homes. They emerged outfitted from head to tippy-toe in designer clothing. In a woman’s arms was a senior dog also outfitted in “canine couture!” As they approached the reception window, I overheard the woman say, “We’re moving and can’t take the dog. She’s also gotten too old!”

The woman working at the shelter intake window asked for a small fee to relinquish the dog. She then informed her this was an overcrowded, high-kill shelter. Due to the dog’s age, the chances of her being adopted were slim-to-none. The couple was completely unfazed after hearing their pet’s almost certain fate. They couldn’t get rid of this dog fast enough. They tossed the dog and a wad of cash through the window without a hint of remorse or so much as a pat goodbye.

Hearing that heartbroken dog howl and whine as she was abandoned is a scene I can never erase from my mind. I couldn’t hold back my tears listening to a surround sound stereo of crying dogs in cages. I realized that all the dogs I’d seen in the courtyard that afternoon were not adoption candidates but actually pets being relinquished. I knew right then and there I couldn’t work in this environment. I opted to be an advocate for senior pets.

We live in an “out with the old, in with the new” culture. We value shiny, new things and quickly replace anything the minute an upgrade or latest version hits the market. We’re all too interested in what’s trending with millennials yet disregard the experience and wisdom held by those eligible for Medicare. And the same holds true for our dogs.

Related posts:

Terragrunt allows you to keep your Terraform code DRY. When I tried it, I wondered how I could leverage it in a similar way where we can keep separate configuration files per environment, and during…

Ele foi simplesmente o campeão do mundo de Pró Evolution Soccer (PES) de 2017 dentro do Emirates Stadium, estádio do gigante do futebol Arsenal. Guilherme Fonseca, o Guifera, conversou com a Pixel e…

Wer von euch hat schon einmal eine Datingbörse benutzt und wer noch nicht? Wenn ihr Single seid und es noch nicht gemacht habt, dann solltet ihr das so schnell wie möglich in Angriff nehmen. Falls…