Ten Commandments for Pet Owners | Resources | Effects of Smoking

Ten Commandments for Pet Owners

My life is likely to last 10 to 15 years. Any separation from you will be very painful.

Give me time to understand what you want from me. Do not break my spirit with your temper, though I will always forgive you. Your patience and understanding will teach me more quickly those things you want me to learn.

Have me spayed or neutered.

Treat me kindly, my beloved friend, for no heart in the entire world is more grateful for your kindness than mine. Don't be angry with me for long, and don't lock me up as punishment. After all, you have your job, your friends, and your entertainment. I have only you.

Speak to me often. Even if I don't understand all your words, I understand your voice when it's speaking to me. Your voice is the sweetest sound I ever hear, as you must know by my enthusiastic excitement when your footsteps fall upon my waiting ear.

Please take me inside when it's cold and wet. I'm a domestic animal and am no longer accustomed to the bitter elements. I ask for little more than your gentle hands petting me. Keep my bowl filled with clean water; I cannot tell you when I'm thirsty. Feed me good food so that I may stay well, to romp and play and do your bidding, to be by your side, and stand ready, willing and able to share with you my life, for that is what I live for. However you treat me, I'll never forget it.

Don't hit me. Remember, I have teeth that could easily crush the bones in you hand, but I choose not to bite you.

Before you scold me for being lazy or uncooperative, ask yourself if something might be bothering me. Perhaps I am not getting the right food, I've been out in the sun too long, or my heart may be getting old and weak.

Take care of me when I get old. You will grow old too.

When I am very old, when I no longer enjoy good health, please do not make heroic efforts to keep me going. I am not having fun. Just see to it that my trusting life is taken gently. And be with me on that difficult journey when it is time to say goodbye. Never say, "I can't bear to watch". Everything is easier for me when you are there. I will leave this earth knowing with my last breath that my fate was always safest in your hands. I love you.

Resources

	Rental Property Living www.rentwithpets.org Renting With Pets: The Online Resource for Rental Managers and Pet Owners
	Keep your Cat Safe http://www.hsus.org/ace/13960 Cats are America's most popular pets, but they are also the pets most likely to die prematurely from diseases, poisons, attacks by other animals, abuse by humans, or speeding vehicles. The reason is simple: Owners often don't realize that allowing their cat to roam outdoors can be a one-way ticket to trouble.

Effects of Smoking

(An Excerpt from the Best Friends Sanctuary Animal Magazine)

Cat-loving smokers who struggle to kick the habit have just been given an even greater incentive to quit. New studies show that second-hand smoke triggers the most common kind of feline cancer: feline lymphoma.

Dr. Antony Moore, a Tufts University veterinarian who conducted the research, hopes the discovery will provide fresh motivation for smokers to stop. Living in a household with a smoker doubles the chances that a cat will develop lymphoma, a disease that kills three-quarters of its victims within a year.

If cats are exposed to passive smoking for five years or more, the risk is tripled. If two people living in the house smoke, cats are four times more likely to contract the cancer.

Moore hopes that people who find it difficult to quit for themselves or their families might toughen up and kick the habit for their beloved pets.