Bad pet owners grinding my gears!!

Something that sends me over the deep end are bad pet owners. Pets do not require a great deal of cre but they do require care. I have heard many horror stories surrounding such irresponable owns to make me cringe. Pets are many things from companions to partners performing tasks.Little lives that can suffer from neglect or mis-trained to develope attitudes that can be dangerous. I never beleived I would be so close to such a bad story as I am in now. Recently I took in a Dog.An eight year old Chihuahua. Adorable and well behaved. My motherin law could not take it to where she was moving. I asked, what about the cat? Her cat was abused severly before she got it so when I met it, it was less than friendly. Actually it was downright vicious. She named the cat cuddles, and I nicknamed it Satan. Satan stuck. Nasty animal really but mother loved her.

Well what about the cat? Unable to take the animal and knowing I would not, she released this fat, nasty, de-clawed animal back to nature where all good cats should live. What??!!You released a domestic Cat into the forest of the Britich Columbia wild??!! Form your own opinions..my voice is already horse over verbal tirade. So now I have the dog. Well after a few days I notice the animal was less than energetic, so figured he had a sedate lifestyle, and let him excercise in backyard. He would cough and weeze after but I had hopes he was getting stronger.

Yesterday I walked him and he just stopped and I had to carry him home. How lazy can an animal be I thought. Well last night after letting him out for a pee, he came in and just dropped like he died. He was exhausted and hyper ventalting. Today we took him to a vet and discovered heart murmurs. He was having congentital heart failure which I guess is common in this breed, but my mother could have had this diagnosed years ago? So now I am on the hook for drugs and emergency vet bill, and the Vet tells me the next week was critical as the dog came very close to dieing. Great. While at the vet, we saw a dog with a cob of corn down its throat. It had been there 6 days and the doctor saw him and performed surgury to remove it. We were told the dog was near death. Another Dog owner phoned in to say his dog leaped out of the back of pickup truck while on the highway, should he bring him in? The vet was on edge that day and snapped a little at few due to owner neglect that frustrated him.

We have laws to protect animals but they will never be enough. It is an issue of individual owners and the attention and care they directly give their animals. Wish it was a black and white issue. The extremely animal abuses are but alot of gray area exists in substandard treatment. Still, at the risk of losing friends, family, whatever, I do not stand by and watch suffering and neglect. Too many times now I have intervened, too many fights. I am tired of it but this is one fight I won't drop. My mother in law got one serious ear full and she better send me a cheque to cover vet care or she can say goodbye to her chances of visiting me or my kids again. Extreme..yes damn it..and not backing off. Respect for life is more than watering a houseplant once every two weeks.