Pet Monologues

Bless the animals.

World Animal Day occurs annually on 4 October. Animal welfare groups, sanctuaries, and individuals throughout the world hold special events to heighten public awareness of animal issues and to encourage people to think about how we as humans relate to animals.

World Animal Day Mission Statement

* To celebrate animal life in all its forms
* To celebrate humankind’s relationship with the animal kingdom
* To acknowledge the diverse roles that animals play in our lives from being our companions, supporting and helping us, to bringing a sense of wonder into our lives
* To acknowledge and be thankful for the way in which animals enrich our lives

“In this photo the Rev. Ron Spahn blesses an equine member of the 10:15am service at Christ Church Grosse Pointe. It was like Noah’s Ark without all the rain.” Photo: Brendan Ross/brossphoto.com

Designer: “Puppy” by Eero Aarnio

History

World Animal Day was conceived at an ecologist’s convention in Florence, Italy in 1931 as a way of highlighting the plight of endangered species. October 4th was chosen as World Animal Day because it is also the Feast of St. Francis of Assisi, a Catholic Church holiday which is often celebrated with an annual “blessing of the pets”.

Since then, it has grown to encompass all kinds of animal life and has been widely celebrated around the world. It is intended as a day of celebration for anyone in the world who cares about animals. It is not restricted to any one nationality, creed, religion, political belief or ideology. Read the rest of this entry »

Posted by Deanna—For the Love of the Dog

Mary and her husband Jim had a dog named ‘Lucky.’ Lucky was a real character. Whenever Mary and Jim had company come for a weekend visit they would warn their friends to not leave their luggage open because Lucky would help himself to whatever struck his fancy. Inevitably, someone would forget and something would come up missing.Mary or Jim would go to Lucky’s toy box in the basement and there the treasure would be, amid all of Lucky’s other favorite toys.

Lucky always stashed his finds in his toy box and he was very particular that his toys stay in the box.

It happened that Mary found out she had breast cancer. Something told her she was going to die of this disease….in fact, she was just sure it was fatal.

She scheduled the double mastectomy, fear riding her shoulders.

The night before she was to go to the hospital she cuddled with Lucky.

A thought struck her…what would happen to Lucky? Although the three-year-old dog liked Jim, he was Mary’s dog through and through. “If I die, Lucky will be abandoned,” Mary thought. “He won’t understand that I didn’t want to leave him.” Read the rest of this entry »

October is adopt a shelter dog month.

ASPCA’s message this month is “Think Globally, Adopt Locally.” They encourage people who are considering adding a four legged barking buddy to their family to adopt from their local shelter. And, if you do bring a new friend home, they also have tips that will help make the transition go smoothly for you and your new dog. Here are some of their tips…

1. You Better Shop Around
Stock up on supplies before Fido arrives! Your new pal won’t need much—the Burberry overcoat and crystal tiara are optional—but essentials include food and water bowls, safe chew toys, grooming tools, a collar and leash, an identification tag and a crate with bedding (towels will do if you don’t want to spend money on a fancy crate pad).

When it comes to food, try to buy the same brand he’s already eating. If you want to change foods, make the switch gradually, mixing old food with new, over a period of a few weeks. Read the rest of this entry »

Chapter 9: The stories that nourish a newspaper.
By John Armstrong

[This is the ninth of 14 excerpts, running Tuesdays and Thursdays, from John Armstrong's memoir of the working life: Wages.]

When a cement truck lost its brakes on a hill and ploughed through someone’s backyard, you needed the parents and relatives of the dead and wounded, the name of the driver, the owner of the company, the neighbours (to fill out the background and describe the terror they faced daily with Big Trucks roaring though their neighbourhood) and someone from government licensing to comment on why he and his department hadn’t checked this truck’s brakes.

It was also important to get the Opposition critic for that department who would describe how the government had failed so tragically in this case, despite his repeated warnings that such a disaster was coming, and how his party would do things differently if they were in office….

The same was true of any local tragedy whether it was the man who hacked up his wife and mailed her postage due to her parents or an immigrant woman who spoke and read no English and bled to death in the emergency room because she couldn’t fill out the admittance papers. Read the rest of this entry »

For the highly structured bloggers, or those that long to be, here is a blog, Watermark—a poet’s notebook, that has been posting Cat items on Friday’s. It suggests a great way to create that “something fun to look forward” mindset. To introduce you to Watermark here is one of the earlier posts that went all the way back to August 2004! The title is “Badly Drawn Cats” and the premise is this: “it’s all very simple—drunken doodling leads to challenge to friends leads to asking random people in pub to draw pictures leads to knocking up web site leads to obsession!”

Here are several to admire:

Source: Watermark—a poet’s notebook.

It’s better than a soap opera.

Since late March, my neighbors and I have been privy to the continuing saga of the trials and tribulations of a family consisting of papa and mama osprey and their very hungry, very noisy young. There are three of those.

Don’t think it’s easy to keep that growing trio of fledglings fed. It’s not as if the parents get to drive to a fast-food restaurant to pick up burgers and some chicken for supper. On the contrary, a lot of hard work goes into providing enough fish for three growing youngsters, plus the mother who gets to baby-sit while the babies are still defenseless.

It’s been estimated that one juvenile consumes close to 200 pounds during a typical season; multiply that times three and it is apparent the life of an osprey adult is not easy.

Last year an osprey pair nested on a snag farther down the river and although we were able to see some of the action, we were only able to observe them through binoculars. My neighbors, Paul and Phyllis, decided a closer nest would be a good addition to our neighborhood and last year they had an artificial nesting box put on a convenient snag closer to their house on the banks of the South Umpqua River. Read the rest of this entry »

All Austin, TX, dogs could be declared dangerous!

While this is just for Austin, there is a lot of discussion going on today about this issue. Here is a great breakdown from a legal mind: Read the rest of this entry »

Today is National Pet Memorial Day, a day for us to remember all of the beautiful pet friends we have loved and lost.

Unfortunately, when someone loses a pet, they may hear things such as “it was just a dog” …. “go get a new one” … “it’s not like it was a family member that died.”
The thing is, for many of us when we lose a pet, it is indeed a family member that dies…a very loved family member. These wonderful, loved beings are certainly never “just a pet.” This is true whether we are talking about a cat, dog, bird, rabbit, reptile, or some other type of animal.

The grief that comes with that loss can be just as strong as if it were a human family member - sometimes even stronger. With the loss a pet, a very real, very important bond has been severed and like other live changing events, it can be extremely painful. Those who dismiss the grief, simply do not understand the strong bond between people and their pets. It’s a shame too, really…because it means they will never know the depth of love that we experience every day with our pets.

Regardless of what others may say, it is definitely okay to grieve when we lose a beloved pet! And it’s also okay to seek out people who understand the pain and will allow each other to grieve for the pet. There are websites, and other resources for people to turn to when they need help getting through the loss. Many of them have chat rooms or bulletin boards, memorial pages, inspirational reading, and suggestions for books or real life resources in cities throughout the country. These resources allow people to grieve for their pets in their own way.

So, today when we think of the pets we have lost, we can honor each of them by remembering how rich our lives have been because of the bond, the love, and affection that we had with them. And even though there is pain when we lose our beautiful pet friends, we are extremely fortunate to be pet people!

Source: petsitusa.com

Monologue Description: “Dog Anxiety” is about doing a favor for a friend and getting screwed over for it. Character Description: In this monologue, Raquel stops over her neighbors in her apartment complex building. She tells her of the terrible creature of a dog she has been babysitting for another friend.

RAQUEL:

She asks me to watch her puppy Oscar. I say sure, I mean, how bad could it be to watch an innocent, harmless, cute little puppy? Right? Right? WRONG! It was a nightmare if there ever was one. Look at me! Do you see the bags under my eyes. I look like I went twelve rounds with Muhammad Ali. I look horrible!

She tells me, like it’s noooooo big deal. She says, “Raquel would you mind watching my puppy for me for three days?” I said sure no problem. No problem! Read the rest of this entry »