Preparing Your Pets for the Unexpected
Happy Birthday to Coco
Today is Coco’s birthday and we celebrated with a birthday cake made at our local doggy bakery. The cake is not sugar-y and gooey as it appears in the photograph; it is actually made of hamburgers. Coco’s birthday reminds me of a resource I want to share, a workbook titled “Organizing for the Care of My Dog”. It is part of a series called “Wise Up! Workbooks for Organizing Life’s Information”. I came across this workbook when it was offered in a charity auction for pet rescue. The workbook offers a template for organizing your dog’s information to provide for his or her care in the event of your absence – planned or otherwise. The workbook includes a draft legal trust for the care of your dog should be unable to do so, as well as basic daily care information that can help your petsitter.
I also want to share a link to pertinent information about preparing your pet published on Petfinder.com, the pet rescue adoption resource where I found Henry at a local shelter. Their post provides a great deal of valuable information, particularly the insight that you should not leave the care of your pet to your local animal rescue organization, which is probably already overwhelmed with other abandoned pets in need of loving homes.
I probably like the Wise Up! workbook because it fits my general philosophy for being prepared to reduce your stress levels for an unexpected event, while helping everyday life to run more smoothly. So whether an extreme event like death or disability or more commonly, family vacation or a business trip, requires you to entrust the care of your dog to someone else, this book is a great resource. It is also a great value as the draft trust document can reduce your legal fees as you plan your affairs. I also recommend sharing it with your employees, as the better prepared they are to deal with the unexpected, the better prepared and safer your business will be. One final recommendation: after you have filled in the workbook, scan it in and store the digital file online. Your efforts would be for nothing should the workbook be lost in a fire.