What is better than one free newsletter a week? Two, and I have just decided to make the new weekly, Sunday Rewind, your second free newsletter of the week.
Look, we need the paid subscriptions as I am becoming increasingly certain that travel is going to start slowing down again, but we got to give the people what they want, and what they want is my opinion on the top pet news stories of the week.
The number one pet story of this past week was the pope saying that people that prefer pets to children are selfish, but that’s just the headline. Let’s dig a little deeper into what the pope said and meant. The pope doesn’t hate pets. The pope quite likes pets and popes and pets have a proud tradition. Pope Francis is quoted in the above article as saying of animals, “Because all creatures are connected, each must be cherished with love and respect, for all of us as living creatures are dependent on one another,”
What the pope is doing with his comments is looking at an issue, falling birthrates, and misplacing the blame. I love my dog and I love my kids but my dog was free to a good home and costs $50 a month in dog food and a couple hundred in yearly vet bills. My kids cost $7,500 a child in hospital bills, $1,000 a month in grocery bills, $100 in diapers, and don’t even ask about the price of childcare. Like most everything else in the world this is an economic issue. Saying people are selfish for choosing a pet over a child is one way of putting it, but it isn’t the best.
Metallica, Eric Church Employee Covid Sniffing Dogs
Bands want to get on the road again and the people want to watch them in concert, but we want to do so in as safe an environment as possible. With the irregularity of vaccine mandates between localities, vaccine card forgeries, and people that outright refuse to be a good neighbor bands are turning to the free market. Covid sniffing dogs are being employed by everyone from Eric Church to Tool to check everyone that heads backstage so that the band and crew can avoid a close contact situation and tours don’t have to be shutdown.
Cats, Black Friday, and Boxes: An Ordeal for the Ages
This last story is far less serious than the first two but that’s cats for you. A couple received a new blender they ordered on Black Friday and immediately the cats claimed the box. The only problem is the Vitamix blender was still inside. We are now in the second week of 2022 and the stand-off continues.
All cat owners have uttered the phrase, “But I can’t move the cat,” at some point in their cohabitation with their furry knife block. The price for moving the cat can be anything from a slash across the arm to a few days of pouting from the offended feline. At this point the Vitamix belongs to the cats and it will be their decision as to when the humans will be able to take their perch, open the box, and begin using their new blender. In my opinion the first thing they should blend are some delicious liver treats for their small loafs.
That’s it for this week’s Sunday Rewind. We look forward to doing it all again next week and see you tomorrow for a subscriber only post on choosing a name for your pet.