We are well into the holiday season now and I feel the need to write about the problems with giving a “living Christmas/Hanukah/Kwanzaa/etc gift” (we celebrate Christmas, so that is what I will use for the examples; just know that it can apply to any holiday, including birthdays/anniversaries). Boyfriends want to give their girlfriends something cute & cuddly, and many parents (and Santa!) will be barraged with requests for a puppy/kitty/pony for Christmas. Misty and I obviously believe in the joy of caring for animals given that we have 6 of our own (3 dogs and 3 cats). However, pets NEVER make a good gift! Let me explain why…
- Training. Many people choose a young animal when it is a gift. They may pick an older one for themselves, knowing that old Rocket may not have much time left and they want to make it pleasant, but it is still true that most pet gifts tend to be puppies and kittens. Young animals require a LOT of care.
- For puppies, you have to worry about housetraining (which generally involves taking them out every couple hours and/or cleaning up lots of messes), as well as other training for temperament and obedience. If you neglect the temperament/obedience training, the puppy may one day bite you or go for a run and bite a neighbor, which could mean the puppy/dog ends up euthanized. And it will be your fault for neglecting his/her training.
- For kittens, you have to worry about them getting into everything. Kittens love to play and have much more energy than even a small child. Plus, they are tiny and can get into all sorts of nooks and crannies. We still haven’t figured out where our newest, Peach, takes his toy mice (he carries them off in his mouth and we never see them again). Luckily, most kittens have an inert sense of using the litter box, but if you introduce a kitten to an older cat, your older cat may decide to forget his/her litter box training.
- Attention. New animals need LOTS of attention. That may work well on Christmas morning when the kids are excited and the puppy is running around being cute. But what happens later than night, when everyone is tired and sleepy from food overload, but the puppy still wants to play? Or the next week/month when the novelty has worn off and the puppy is now a nuisance needing to be walked and taken out or cleaned after?
- Parental Involvement. This is a biggie. When we helped at the shelter, we HATED seeing people come in and return an animal because “the kids didn’t take care of it”. News flash, parents, YOU are the adult. It is great to try to teach kids responsibility, but the age-old “take care of the puppy or I’ll take it away” is a cruel punishment not just to your kids, but also to the puppy. Who knows where that puppy will end up: a new, better home (you hope); with a bad, abusive owner; with an owner who discards it on the side of the road; or euthanized? Any of those could and does happen. Please think about that before returning a pet because you want to punish your kids.
- Holiday Health Dangers. This is applicable even to pets you already may have. Some seasonal plants are deadly to dogs, as is chocolate. Let gift givers know that you have pets that could eat a food present and ask them not to wrap such things (our Doberman, Sierra (RIP), ate a box of Whitman’s Samplers once; my mom now sends any food items unwrapped when she sends gifts). Table scraps can mean diarrhea and vomiting. And trust me, you do not want to have to pull that pretty icicle stuff out of your dog/cat’s butt. It is gross and it can cause them a good deal of pain. This is Peach’s first Christmas with us and we’ve already had to yell at him for biting the Christmas lights, trying to climb up the Christmas tree, batting at ornaments, and opening a couple gifts a little too early. Luckily, we prepared properly: the lights are never plugged in when we aren’t in the room (to avoid electrocuting him); we removed the hooks from all the ornaments so that they are only hung by string (to avoid skewering his innards should he swallow them); the few glass ornaments we have are up high and placed very carefully so they can’t fall (also to avoid dangerous ingestion); and Misty and I have a pact not to look too closely at torn gifts if they are addressed to us – we just hand it over to the other one to be re-wrapped.
- Adjustment to Surroundings. A new pet always requires an adjustment period. The holidays can be the worst time to try this as there is usually a lot of chaos – extra people, possibly children or other animals that may not be nice to the new pet; tantalizing arrays of food left within potential reach of an untrained pet; loud noises from new toys or fireworks; etc.
- Personal Preference. You may think that a nice big dog that can go hiking with you is the best kind of dog out there, but your significant other/child/friend may not necessarily agree with you. Pets are very personal and in order to ensure that the pet stays with the owner, it is important that there is a bond, a connection. Many shelters will not allow someone to adopt an animal for someone else; ours insisted that every member of the household (including other dogs, if applicable) meet the perspective pet.
- Other Pets. Since I brought up other dogs that may be in a household, let’s talk about that for a moment. Dogs and cats are just like people when it comes to socializing – they may generally like most others of their kind, but there is almost always someone who will rub them the wrong way – often without probable cause. You don’t want to bring home a new pet and have a huge dogfight on your hands. Even when the two animals seem to tolerate each other, it is important to introduce a new pet slowly. My husky, Tasha, takes about a month before she’s accepted a new kitten/cat as part of the pack and will stop chasing them. That means, we don’t allow them in the same room without supervision for about a month. Give the resident animal more space by locking the new animal in a bedroom or other spare room (a baby gate works well if you are introducing two dogs). That way, the new animal’s smell enters the house and the old animal can get used to it. Eventually, do some introductions under your supervision (with dogs, it often helps to have two people with each person holding the leash of one of the dogs in case tensions flare up). Later, you can do short spurts with them together unsupervised and, ultimately, you can have a very agreeable situation. Just be cautious and on the lookout for potential complications: Tasha is food-aggressive, so there is a certain order to feeding time and feeding time is ALWAYS supervised. Sierra was also food aggressive. There was one unfortunate incident where I’d left a tube of toothpaste in my bag (packing for a trip home). We went to the store and, when we returned, the toothpaste was eaten and Tasha’s ear had been split open. That was certainly the most expensive tube of toothpaste I never used! Those two ended up the best of friends (we almost lost Tasha too b/c she was so heartbroken over Sierra’s passing), so patience and training can do miracles. But the holidays are a tough time to try for one.
Living creatures deserve a long-term commitment. If you absolutely must have a new pet, please wait until after the holidays. Give a stuffed animal, toys for the potential pet, a gift certificate, a card with the promise of a pet that you will pick out together, etc. Just please, please do NOT give a pet for Christmas!
