Know Your Limitations

  Posted on July 5, 2012  by Joy of Living  No comments

Sometimes we don’t know how bad a situation is until someone from the outside points it out to us.  Such was the case with Christine, one of the pet owners on last night’s Dogs in the City episode.

Christine was in her mid-30’s (give or take a few years), going through a divorce and had four dogs in a rather cramped house.  She’d contacted the show about Ika, an aggressive pit bull mix but when Justin Silver, the show’s star arrived at her house, he saw the situation was much serious than one aggressive dog.

As it turned out, one of the dogs was pretty balanced, two others (both pit mixes) were quite out of control and then there was Ika, the dog that had prompted Christine’s call.  Christine was doing her best with the dogs but it wasn’t working.  She was so stressed because of the divorce, she wasn’t able to care for the dogs the way they needed.  Justin pointed this out to her and recommended she consider rehoming one dog to be able to get the remaining dogs trained and bring some order to things.

Christine thought about what Justin said and when he visited her again, she’d made arrangements with her ex-husband to take one of the dogs for a few months.  This allowed her to relax knowing she wasn’t letting her dogs down, and she was able to focus and started the in-depth training her remaining dogs needed.

Many of us that are animal lovers would like to take in more dogs or cats to give them a home, but it’s important to remember our limitations.  Finances, living space, and schedule should all be realistically considered before adding another pet member to the family.

If circumstances aren’t right to add another pet right now, there are ways to help homeless cats and dogs.  Volunteer at a local animal shelter/rescue, consider doing fund raising for area shelters/rescues, or share homeless pet information on the various social media platforms are all great avenues to help.

Contact your local shelter or rescue, they appreciate any help you can give!