Apr 25 2009
Please take care of your pets!
It seemed to be an ok week until we got the phone call on Tuesday night. My 9 year old neice was playing at a friends house and their dog got loose and bit her. No provocation whatsoever.
I know that is a pretty normal occurance. Scary nonetheless. No stitches, however it did break the skin.
The extremely scary part of this was that the family had 5 dogs, 4 in a small pen and the one that bit her was chained up. NONE of the dogs had ever had any of their vaccinations. This dog was 4 years old and never had its rabies shot. In small-country-town Oklahoma, that is especially a bad thing. We have been told to assume that all skunks, racoons, and bats have rabies–and there are plenty of them here!
I know that having a pet is not cheap; vet bills, topsoil to fill in holes that have been dug, replacing many parts of my dad’s grill (my dog’s favorite chew toy), but vaccinations are probably one of the cheapest things you can do for your pet. Rabies shots are also given for free or low cost several times a year!
We now have to wait 2 weeks to see if my neice needs extremely painful rabies shots. We are all doing a lot of hoping and praying that everything comes out ok.
This all could have been avoided if the pet owners took the time and paid the little amount of money to get their dogs properly taken care of and had them vaccinated.
So everyone, pleasae do the right thing–if you can’t afford to properly take care of your pet, do not get one. If you open your heart to the love that a pet can give, please take care of them. It will be returned a millionfold by the many happy years that you have with them!
