No gift pets

This article is a little old; however, it reminded me a lot of an IRL conversation I had not long ago with my parents, so I'm going to post it here. Its title? "No Christmas Puppies, Please!"

Indeed, many advertisers and artists have noticed this connection. Images of cozy family Christmas mornings often include scenes of floppy-eared puppies peering innocently out of a colorful gift box, their eyes wide with wonderment and awe. As the scene continues, the puppy stumbles preciously over mounds of gift wrappings, to the great amusement of delighted children who rush to hug the youngster and receive big wet puppy-slurps in return. Mom and Dad smile knowingly in the background as the true meaning of life is celebrated before their eyes. What could possibly be wrong with this picture?

Nothing. As art, as fiction, or as advertisement, it captures a lot of the symbolic spirit of the Christmas celebration perfectly. The appeal of this scene is like that of Norman Rockwell's paintings. As advertisement, it works. It sells products, even those totally unrelated to dogs or to Christmas. As fiction it warms people's hearts. What's wrong, though, is what happens when real people try to re-enact this warm loving scene in their own homes with a real, living puppy playing the role of a prop in this mythic family life-drama.

While there were no plans for Christmas puppies showing up, we had been talking of pups as gifts (for birthdays, for instance), and of the not-so-nice experience one of my grand-aunts had with a "gift-dog". Her close family had gone to a refuge to pick a dog, thinking it'd be a nice surprise for her birthday, but what got in their heads on that fateful day, I really don't know. She was about 75 at the time, and they found nothing better than to take a big dog for her—no specific breed, simply a... well, the dog was big, he needed much exercise every day, and thiswasn't exactly the "quietly-walk-the-dog" kind of exercise. Results of the "gift": he was too strong for her, she fell, she broke her wrist. Happy birthday.

This example has sure taught me not to ever envision giving a pet for a gift—whether a dog, a cat, or any other kind of pet, one has to be sure that the person getting her will want one, as well as know how to take care of her.

If these conditions aren't filled... fuggedaboutit.