Dear Santa Revisited

Last year Mama asked me to write a letter to Santa. She wanted me to write a new one this year, but my wishes still haven't changed since last year, so I'm reprinting it.

Dear Santa:

Mama wants me to write a letter to you saying what I want for Christmas. I really just want to eat all 32 of her nutcrackers (most of them have furry stuff somewhere on them, and they ‘re all made of wood, which I also like to eat).

Seriously, I just want people to be more responsible doggie owners. I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to think it’s okay to hit a dog (I wasn’t hit, but I know many dogs are) so I want anyone who doesn’t understand dogs to not have a dog until they do.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to think it’s okay to get a dog for someone as a present only to not spend time with him/her. Or to give him/her away when they realize how much work we dogs can be.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to think it’s okay to hoard a dog, thinking they are doing the dog a favor and providing a good home by keeping him/her in a crate all day, never letting him/her out to go potty, to eat, to socialize or to exercise. I was done no favors by the person who hoarded me; I ended up with an intestinal disease and afraid of a lot of things. I want people who hoard dogs (and other things) to get help for themselves instead of trying to help the dogs.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to think it’s okay to ignore a dog, never playing with her/him, never talking to him/her, only treating her/him like an object not to be cared about.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to think it’s okay to let their dog run loose without training, without supervision, in places where dogs have no business running loose.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to not spay or neuter their dogs unless they are planning on being responsible breeders that are kind to all dogs, even the runts. And mama thinks that breeders shouldn't breed until there are enough buyers in line to buy the puppies. Good things are worth the wait!

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to train dogs to fight without reason, as a football player did and I know others do. I don’t want any dog to be trained to be aggressive or to be mean. I’m not considering police dogs and others like them in this group; they are trained to use force when needed to stop bad guys/gals, but they’re also trained to stop when the humans can take over.

I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to donate food to the poor without donating food for their pets. I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to judge a poor person with a pet as irresponsible; people never can know why poor people became poor. Maybe they had pets before they became poor. Maybe one day they’ll be poor too and what will happen to their pets? I hope it never happens, but it could. So Santa, I want people to remember pets when donating to worthy causes.

On the same note, I don’t want anyone anywhere anytime ever to put getting a pet over feeding their children. It may make the children happy for a while, but it won’t feed them and it won’t help the pet when they can’t feed them.

Santa, I just want all pets everywhere all the time to be loved and respected and treated like one of the family.

In fact, I can honestly say I want that for all animals, humans included.