Whilst visiting a Boarding kennel today who kindly looked after my 3 foster dogs whilst I was in Cairns presenting the Open Paw Programme to Shelters in the region and assisting AWDRI in their publicity drive, I got into conversation with the owners of both the dog kennels and a nearby cattery.

Soon enough the conversation turned to pets not being collected at the end of their stay. I was absolutely floored by the responses, whilst many animals stay at the kennels for years at a time due to their owners changed living circumstances, some of the animals are just dumped, that is the owners stop paying the boarding fees and stops communicating with the carers.

Both the cattery and the kennel have had the same people try to 'dump' their pets on them, that is rather than ensure their living arrangements incorporate their four legged family members, or surrender their animals to welfare agencies. I totally understand that not all people can look after dogs and cats that they purchased or were given, as many of these animals far outlive our periods of life when we have time for them. We leave our parents home, we go to college, we travel, we start families of our own, we go back to work, our children leave home, we move homes... the list is endless with regards to our major life changes. I get it, I have often looked after animals that can not be looked after their original owners for what ever reason and I have had my animals looked after by others for one or another reason.

However, just walking away from animals left in the care of others I do not understand. The most common thing I hear is used is, 'well they seemed to love animals more than I did' and that is that.

When taking on an animal, a person needs to comprehend that animal is for its life. It is not a car that can be traded in for a cuter version, and of course we are fortunate that there are so many people out their that are ready to take on the care of those animals that are 'traded in' such as the AWL, RSPCA, PetRescue, AWDRI, PoundRounds etc. However when people leave their animals with boarding kennels I remember the times that at boarding school I saw children left there.

Whilst yes there were several times as a kid my parents may have left me alone at the farm or at school as soon, as I was old enough I realised that things came up. But too often as I went through life I would counsel kids who were left at school with no contact from their families. It is funny though how just a little bit of knowledge can change how a child deals with the situation...like a note or more recently a text to say, 'sorry we are are running late, but will be there soon'.

Dogs can not understand notes or texts...and their carers don't understand telepathy so why people stop communicating with them and just vanish without a 'sorry we are running late but will be there soon' is beyond my abilities to comprehend.