Do you have a young pet in your household? What fun! You’ve got a lot of work ahead of you, for sure. Probably even now you have moments when you wonder whether or not you’re up to the task of being a good pet parent. But the joys far outweigh the wondering. I bet that, when you’re not cleaning up a mess on your carpet or taking your favorite ottoman in for repair, you’re basically glad you have that baby pet, and you’re truly looking forward to a lifetime of love.
Fast-forward a few years—maybe ten or fifteen—and ask yourself: what now?
Your pet, once young and lively, is now elderly and impaired. Your home, once ordered and happy, has become a old folks’ residence for an animal. An animal who once again soils the furniture and leaves messes on the carpet. An animal who is ill or infirm, needing constant attention. And worse, an animal whose medical care has become a nightmare. Insurance or not, old animals cost money—lots of money. They need medications, supplements, special foods, physical assistance, and an enormous amount of patience and concern. Your life has once again turned to one of constant care and frequent emergencies. You never know what will happen next, but you can guess it won’t be pleasant.
What do you do?
From what I read, a popular trend is this: You take your elderly, infirm, unwell, expensive pet—your family member for so many years—to the local animal shelter and leave him there. To be adopted? Right. To be adopted. Because there must be somebody out there able to give your former pet the care he needs. He’s too messy, too needy, too expensive for you—but certainly someone else will want him. He will live out the rest of his life, loved and cared for . . . just not by you.
Are you kidding?
Your beloved pet, your family member (former family member) will languish in a narrow run or in a crowded cage or in the shelter’s veterinary clinic, unwanted, until his health and emotional state deteriorates to the point that the only humane answer is to euthanize him.
Your pet won’t die alone.
Shelter staff will be there.
They will be kind, gentle, and caring. They take no joy in euthanizing. They feel great sadness that this animal, through no fault of his own, lived too long and brought too much unhappiness to his former family to be allowed to stay in what was once his forever home. They will cry.
True, one or two pets out of a hundred, brought to a shelter because they lived too long and became too inconvenient, might find a loving caregiver to see them through their last days. True, there are organizations whose entire focus is finding end-of-life care for pets whose families can no longer provide for them. True, there are generous people who give money to these organizations—even directly to individuals who provide hospice care—so that your former pet gets what he needs as his life winds down. Your former pet might get lucky . . . luckier than he has been with you.
What happens next, in many cases?
The family who’s brought in the elderly, unwanted animal leaves their former pet with shelter staff and . . . wait for it . . . heads to the adoption area to look for a young, healthy pet!
I know. Almost unbelievable. But it happens every day. Ask the staff at your local shelter if you don’t believe me!
I will say that most reputable shelters do refuse adoption to prospective pet owners who have demonstrated their inability to deal with animal end-of-life issues. But there is no way they can prevent that family (the serial abandoners) from getting another pet, one way or another. Send in a friend, send in a relative—the family picks the pet they want and lets someone else adopt it. I don’t fault the shelters that fall victim to these dissemblers. They can’t give lie detector tests to every prospective adopter! This kind of thing happens, and happens every day, in every animal shelter in the world.
You say you don’t want to be a serial adopter, someone who abandons an elderly and unwell animal to the system because you don’t want to deal with end-of-life issues? Good for you!
Next week, I’ll suggest some realistic measures you can take now, while your animal is still young, to assure your baby pet that you will be willing and able to care for him or her no matter how old or unhealthy he or she might become. It’s not easy, but it can be done.
