The following article was written by and is presented with permission from Louise Guyton, a rescuer who states that every Christmas there is an abundance of puppies abandoned to the shelters:
Please don’t do it! Please advise others not to do it! Getting a pup as a Christmas gift is just not a good idea!
I don’t know if people really notice or not. Sometimes I wonder. A little pup or any other pet is a living, breathing animal that feels pain and neglect, just like a child does. There is no way to compare it with a toy because puppies cannot be wrapped up in a box as a Christmas Gift (they need air), Puppies need a lot of attention (feeding, potty breaks, play and a nice rest period where it is quiet), Puppies need to be handled with care (you cannot beat on them like a Tonka toy or carry it around by one leg like you do a doll), Puppies need love (heartbroken pups tend to cry a lot and even make themselves sick).
Now let’s take a look at the holidays and put a puppy in the middle of it all. It is Christmas eve and Mom just got the three children to bed. Dad is sitting on the floor trying to figure out how to put Lisa’s wagon together and then he has to tackle a combination fort and playhouse for his son. Mom wanted to get cookies baked this evening so she would not be doing it on Christmas day. She promised them for a church party on Boxing Day, but she has to run across town and pick up the puppy she and Dad bought for the kids. It is the most adorable little thing – only 8 weeks old and still stumbling when it tries to walk. So she has to leave the cookies for now and gets in the car to pick the little pup up.
Backyard breeder Zelda is hoping that all three of the people who have purchased puppies hurry up and get there. She told her kids that she would be up to see them this evening and spend the night so they could be all together on Christmas Day. In fact she planned to spend quite a few days and that is why she lied to the people buying pups and told them they were 8 weeks when in fact they were barely 6 weeks. If she could get rid of the puppies tonight, then her neighbor’s son was going to come over the day after Christmas and take the mother dog to the Humane Society. Everyone showed up and picked up their puppy. So 20 minutes after the last pup left, Zelda was in the car and puling out the driveway.
Mom put the new little puppy in a box in the garage for the night. She had a hot water bottle to help keep him warm. It would not stay warm all night long, but the kids would be up really early so it should be okay. She remembered the clock trick to remind the puppy of Mama dog and she put down some dry food and some warm pablum (children’s Pablum). It sure did not look like the puppy knew too much about feeding itself!. As she walked out the puppy started screaming. She was really glad he was in the garage where he would not keep the entire family awake. She went to the kitchen and was baking cookies. Dad was now working on the fort. She got two batches of cookies in the oven so she had ten minutes to start putting some packages from Santa under the tree.
They worked for a couple of more hours and then went to bed. Mom could still hear that puppy crying while she was in the kitchen, but now that everything was dark and quiet, he probably would settle down and go to sleep. The kids were up and yelling before 6 AM the next morning. It seemed that a guy named Santa came during the night. Mom and Dad struggled out of bed, having gone to bed too late the night before. After watching the kids rip through paper and throw boxes everywhere, she snuck into the garage and got the puppy. She got him into the living room and put him down. He promptly peed on the carpet, causing Mom to scream. Everyone turned around and the kids spotted the puppy. They ran over and for the next 15 minutes they held and kissed the puppy and were so excited. Then they ran back to the tree to see what else they had received. Lisa brought her bike inside and hooked up the wagon to it and started riding around the living room. She was on her third pass when a puppy started screeching. Everyone stopped and ran to see what happened. Dad picked the pup up and looked him over before telling Lisa that she ran over the puppies tail with the bike and the new wagon, The pups tail was starting to swell and it certainly looked crooked so Dad said that they were probably going to need to take the puppy to a veterinary’s office. So Mom put the poor puppy back into the box in the garage
After breakfast, she finally remembered that the puppy was probably hungry so she told Lisa to go make sure the puppy had dog food in his bowl. When Lisa came back she told her Mom that the little dish with the dry food was full, but he had spilled his water. Grandma and Grandpa came at noon and they would be staying until Christmas dinner. About 4:30 that afternoon, the family sat down to have dinner. The kids were still busy showing Grandma what all they got for Christmas. Grandpa was always grumpy and he did not seem interested. All he wanted to do was eat, but Grandma was so the kids kept jumping up from the table and running off into the other room to bring back something else they received. By the time Grandma and the kids finally finished eating, it was 6:30 and Grandpa was asleep on the couch. So everyone went into den. They put on a Christmas video and sat down to watch.
It was almost 10 o’clock when Grandpa woke up and realized what time it was. He went to the bathroom and then straight to the den where everyone was standing up because the movie was over. He told Grandma that they need to get going. So everyone started passing coats and gifts and stuff into the car and after a bout of kissing and hugging and telling each other Merry Christmas, Grandma and Grandpa finally drove away. Mom and Dad were sure glad when they left. It was bitterly cold outside and they had just grabbed the first jacket they saw to go say goodbye to Dad’s parents. When they got back in the house, Dad told the kids to pick up toys and stuff and get ready for bed and Mom started cleaning the kitchen. It was late before they finally got the kids into bed, the dishwasher going, and all the papers and empty boxes picked up. Dad was bushed so he was going to bed after grabbing a quick shower and Mom was going to fill the tub and relax for awhile.
She finally got out of the tub and fell into bed after midnight and that was when she remembered the puppy. She put on a heavy robe and went out to the garage. It was very cold out there and she found the puppy in a corner of the box. He was shivering and whimpering a little. His tail was all swollen up, he really looked pathetic. She picked the puppy up, box and all and brought it into the kitchen where it was warmer. She put a towel in the dryer so it would warm up and wrapped the puppy up in it before turning off the light and going back to bed. The next morning about 10, Dad called a veterinarians’ office to see if they were open. They were so he asked if he could come in as soon as possible. After he told them what he thought was wrong with the puppy, they told him to bring the puppy in right away. The kids were in the living room playing and they had not once asked about the puppy so Mom and Dad were a little disturbed.
Dad left with the puppy and when he returned, he was quite upset. The puppy had to stay at the vets office. They said the puppy was dehydrated, the tail was badly broken and the puppy was probably going to lose it. They also told him that the puppy was not eating dry kibble yet because it was much too young and still needed soft foods and its mother. The puppies lungs sounded raspy like it was getting a respiratory problem and the doctor sounded angry. Then the told Dad that he would have to leave an estimated deposit of $500.00 to cover the cost of medical bills for that little dog that they had not even named yet and whom the kids had forgotten they had. They finally tried to call the breeder to let her know that they would like to bring the puppy back but there was no response. So they talked it over and decided that owning a dog was just not what they needed to do, especially now with the kids being so excited with new toys and they were hyper with all the candy, but anyway, they decided to give the puppy up to the Humane Society. Dad called the vet and told them that they were not going to pick the puppy up but they would contact the humane society and get one of the employees to pick the puppy up. But that did not work because they needed to sign a release. The vet said that if they came to take the puppy now, it would die, so they decided that in the morning, Dad would go and pick the puppy up at the vets office and take it to the Humane Shelter where he could sign the release.
The puppies condition was improved but guarded the next morning. Dad could see that the vet was pretty angry over the entire situation. The vet said he would not release the puppy at this time, but he suggested Dad go sign the release at the front desk right there at the veterinary office. Dad asked for a refund and the vet told him rather sarcastically, No, I think you owe that much to this little puppy. Dad left and he vowed that he would never have another dog as long as he was alive.
Three days later an employee at the veterinary clinic adopted the puppy and took it home with her. The puppy never did go to the Humane Society so he never got to see that his mother was there and so were his siblings. It seems that none of the Christmas pups fit in with their new homes. They probably would have been fine about the middle of February after all of Christmas was over, but the Christmas pups did not work out for any of the three families.
1. Puppies need too much attention and care to make a good present on Christmas. There are too many demands out of everyone’s day already without trying to add more. ‘’=
2. Young pups need food three to four times a day. They require constant care or they will make a smelly mess of your carpets very quickly. Someone has to start housetraining NOW !!
3. Someone needs to be available to escort the puppy out to go potty every three to four hours. It does not matter if the temperature outside is minus 10 and falling.
4. Puppies just separated from its mother may be frightened, distressed, or sense emotions from his now human parents. A stressed pup is very prone to illness.
5. Sometimes a stressed puppy reacts by getting into everything. He is likely to chew up shoes or slippers or swallow things he should not have in the first place,
6. Because of all the sweets, treats and filling food around, it is more likely that puppies will find something to overindulge in and really make himself sick.
7. Puppies are inclined to investigate all of the shiny pretty stuff on the Christmas tree and wind up eating tinsel, chewing on electrical cords, breaking fragile ornaments and ingesting glass.
8. Pointsettia is not the best plant you can let a puppy chew on unless you are wealthy and don’t mind the veterinary bills. But you don’t have to go to the vet if your family does not mind owning a dead puppy for Christmas.
9. Were you too busy to check and see if the puppy came with worms or other diseases. Was the puppy oild enough to have its first shots? Can the puppy eat. These are all things that a new owner needs to take time to find out BEFORE you get the dog.
10. Please remember and remind everyone you see, Puppies are not a whim they are forever and they need to come to a family that can keep them forever.
Louise Guyton
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