Protection.

Yesterday I was minding my own business, eating my delicious chicken wrap whilst reading the Red Eye, when I came across an article. It was about pets and shelters and that's when my appetite diminished.

Did you know that every dog that gets dropped off at a shelter from an unwanted family must go through an evaluation to see if they are adoptable?

Especially pit bulls.

They all go through multiple tests and if they don't pass them, it's bye bye, baby.

Are you crying?

An estimated 3-4 million cats and dogs are euthanized per year. Chicago alone euthanized 11,000 cats last year.

I remembered how I first got my baby Duchess. The owner was trying to sell her but at the moment I just had no money to get a puppy. Days later he asked me again if I wanted her because he was going to give her out for free but wanted to give it to the right hands. Even then I thought long and hard before saying yes, later I had to convince my mother about getting her because as soon as she heard "pit bull" come out of my mouth she let out a big fat "NO!" Having to educate her about how pit bulls got a bad name (and I educated myself also) and after showing her a picture of her:

Me: Mom! Look at her! (showing picture)
Mom: OH MY GOODNESS! That's not a pit bull, that's ADORABLE!

Now Duchess has a home, and we got a new family member.

And not too long ago, Lucky came into the picture and I wasn't so sure about having her (err, him, we found out later that she was a he all along.) No one was properly taking care of him. Don't get me wrong, he was being bombarded with kisses and squeezes but no one wanted to claim financial responsibility for him. I made a call to the shelter and it was all set up to take him that afternoon. My mom called me later on and asked if I was going to take him because she didn't want to be the one to send the cat to his death. I never even thought about that before she put it that way. Something happened and he finally lived up to his name. He got Lucky that some people got a change of heart and actually called a vet to get his shots so that he could officially live with us.

Duchess got a brother and we got one cat off the death sentence.

People, if you have a pet and haven't spayed or neutered them, remember you are not giving them a chance to give life but you are giving them the chance to kill that life.

Want a pet? Adopt. So many puppies and kitties in steel cages waiting for you to come save them. Save them.