It's that time of year when people go nuts over Christmas presents for their pets. Well, they call it the 'silly season,' don't they?
It's also time for the obligatory news stories about how much people spend on pet gifts and what they're going to get for them.
It's always bewildering to see just how much money is spent on our animals during the season, not to mention the rest of the year, too.
It's certainly not for me -- or anyone -- to tell anyone how to spend the money they have left after every tax agency in the world has taken its cut. It just seems a little out of whack that pets are lavished with $300 beds, jeweled collars, designer coats and other "stuff" while charities are lacking funds and all across the country Old Mother Hubbard's food pantries are going bare.
Such is one of the inconsistencies and paradoxes of life.
I love animals as much as the next guy. Insects and rodents, not so much. And certainly not in the house. I love them to stay out in the yard where nature meant them to be.
No matter how much we love our pets, they're animals! Yes, they're our
pets, our friends, our companions and members of our families; they become our children in a way.
But they're still animals! They don't have a clue what day it is, let alone the significance of any given day, be it their birthday or Christmas or the July 4th, a day they don't much care for with all the noise.
Rover doesn't care that he has a stocking hung over the fireplace with care along with Suzie's and Joey's. All he cares about is getting that favorite treat when it's handed to him anytime.
It's seems over the top to spend $285 on a plush doggie bed when my dog has his choice of four $1,000 beds from Sit 'n Sleep in Tarzana, and a $1,500 leather imported for Northridge to sleep on.
How's that for being good to your dog?; $5,500 worth of doggie beds that occasionally he lets us use, too.
Doggie beds never made sense to me, because dogs don't stay put for more than an hour or two at night. It's in a dog's basic nature to keep changing positions all night, a hang-up left over from their days in the wild when their sense of self-preservation told them to keep moving.
Also, if the nanny/dog cam were running all night, these doting dog lovers would soon learn that although Tinker Bell gets in her dog bed when they tell her to, they'd see that the second they were tucked in their own beds, Maxx is outta his bed and onto the white sofa faster than the time it would take them to say 'Merry Christmas and Happy New Year."
Funny, my dogs never went for their own beds. They always opted for sleeping places of their own choosing, such as the above mentioned leather couch, or a stinky blanket dragged out of a laundry basket.
My gift for the two newest members of our household is to keep the thermostat set at the recommended 66 degrees at night when my custom was to turn the heat off.
The pair of parakeets gives me an excuse to keep it set on low and serves two purposes: It keeps the chill out of the air so we don't wake up to find a couple of birdcicles at the bottom of the cage, and my kitchen isn't a frozen wasteland when I go to make that first cup of coffee.
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