Food for thought....

Most situations in life are pretty much cut and dried... There is a right way and there is a wrong way... You speed with your car and get caught, you are going to get a ticket... You write a check for more money than you have in your checking account, the check is going to bounce, the bank will charge you fees and hopefully an apology to a business after making your check good will suffice... 

We rely, as humans, on the dependability of having few options and not too many choices to make... Most of us mature adults realize quickly that too many options, too many choices or too much of anything translates into stress...

And then every once in awhile, I come across a situation that is not so cut and dried... And I continue to 'percolate' on the matter in my head, trying to figure it out and what is the right answer versus the wrong one... 

So today, I bring one of these situations to you... So that I can share my inability to determine exactly what is right and what is wrong... 

Let's call this lady "Mary"... She's an elderly lady and has a darling little boy furbaby that she loves dearly named "Pepe"... Pepe has an affair and Mary decides to adopt one of Pepe's children, who she names "Prince".... Prince has been raised since a pup with his dad, Pepe, and this is one happy little family... 

Because Prince has been raised with his dad, he has a very strong bond with Pepe... Dogs are very social creatures and isolation is not something they like any more than we humans do... 

When Mary starts getting sick, she makes a hard decision as to what is to become of her two little furbabies when she passes... Having no one to take care of her two furbabies, and knowing just how bonded and close they are, she also realizes that splitting them up is not an option... Nor a kind thing to do... Not many folks want to adopt two dogs together at one time... 

Mary writes in her will that when she passes, if one or both of these furbabies are still living, she would like them humanely euthanized and their remains cremated with her... 

One would think that your last will and testament is binding and that after you die, the people left behind will honor your last wishes, right? Or why do we bother with doing something like this if after you are gone it means nothing, right?

So Mary passes onto Heaven, but Pepe and Prince are still alive... During this sad and tragic time, it is decided by a vet that fulfilling Mary's last will and testament is not an ethical thing to do, so Mary is buried without her two furbabies' ashes... 

Mary's niece now has Pepe and Prince... But because of the city ordinances, she cannot keep Pepe and Prince because it will put her over-code... In the meantime, Prince and Pepe become even closer to each other because their dear mom is gone and in a dog's situational way of thinking, they don't have a clue what has gone on - just that Mary is no longer here and they are in a strange home... 

Natural for them to bond even closer with each other... 

Even Mary's niece tells me these are really great little dogs, but she is ill with cancer and cannot deal with additional problems because of the city's restrictions on how many pets a person can have... She has her maximum by law and that's all there is to it... 

Makes me wonder yet again why we have the laws we do regarding the number of pets a person can have... If a city's restrictions are four, it doesn't matter if you have four 150-pound Mastiffs or four 5-pound Chihuahuas... Four is four is four... And you can state in the law it is for environmental purposes, but four 150-pound Mastiffs leave a TON more poop behind than four little dogs!!

I get it... These laws are to attempt to prevent people from becoming hoarders... But to whom really does these laws have the most effect upon?... 

People who live in a city that has a pet restriction of four, but want more, will simply not license any over the legal limit... The city simply loses the licensing revenue... People that follow the laws surrender dogs like Pepe and Prince... And the county budget is used to take care of little furbabies like this... These two end up in the county shelter and become the taxpayers' concern to house and take care of... 

Unless a rescue like TLC steps up and takes both of these boys because they are bonded... And continues to work extra hard to find an adopter that is interested in adopting not one dog (which is hard enough on a daily basis to find), but two dogs together at the same time so that Mary's last wishes are honored... 

What is wrong with this picture?... And where is the right and the wrong in these situations?

I don't have an answer, and I've been grappling with this since we pulled these little guys out of Camarillo... So, your thoughts are...... ????