National Mutt Day!
Post by BlogPaws CEO, Yvonne DiVita
What is a mutt? you might ask. Or, who cares about mutts? Or, mutts aren’t worth my time.
But, today is National Mutt Day! and you should pay attention.
I will say this first… I love all dogs. All of us at BlogPaws do. I have a rescued Boston Terrier and so I have a sweet spot for those wonderful creatures. And, I miss my hound dog, Chester, so very much… I ache all over when I think of him. He wasn’t a full-blooded hound, but you couldn’t tell. He had to be mostly coon hound, anyway.
Still, I have a soft spot in my heart for those dogs we call “mutt” also. In my entire life, almost all of the wonderful dogs I’ve had have been mutts. They weren’t from any one bloodline, they were a compilation of several bloodlines, though one was usually dominant.
I grew up with Shepard-Collie mixes and Shepard-Lab mixes. Both dogs were just wonderful! Loving, affectionate, smart and loyal to a fault.
It makes sense to me to have a Mutts Day. A National Holiday, recognized by those of us who love dogs, if no one else, that celebrates the life of the many mutts out there in the world.
On the website, it reads,
“National Mutt Day was created to be celebrated on two dates per year to raise awareness of the plight of mixed breed dogs in shelters around the nation and to educate the public about the sea of mixed breed dogs that desperately await new homes. Mixed breed dogs tend to be healthier, better behaved, they live longer and are just as able to perform the duties of pure bred dogs – such as bomb and drug sniffing, search and rescue and guiding the blind.
There are millions of loving and healthy mixed breed dogs sitting in shelters, who are desperately searching for a new home. One of the county’s most famous movie dogs is Benji, is a mixed breed Terrier.”
So please visit your local shelter and find a new friend today! If you can’t adopt a mixed breed friend on July 31st and December 2nd, please donate at least $5 to your local animal shelter, as they all need financial assistance and every dollar counts!
I especially love the invitation (encouragement?) to donate just $5 to a local shelter. Five dollars is a small amount of money, by today’s standards. If you’re of a certain age, as I am, you will remember when $5 was a lot of money… it was enough to fill up your car’s gas tank, oh yeah! Anyway, today, it’s the cost of a cup of coffee. Or, a sandwich at certain sub shops. We barely think about taking that $5 out of our wallet, at any given time, to pay for something we’re purchasing. This week, today, and on December 2nd, I want you to think about it… look at the currency in your fingers, look at your coffee or other purchase and imagine… that instead of buying that item you can likely do without just this once, you could use that $5 to save a pet’s life. To save a mutt who probably ended up in a shelter through no fault of his or her own.
Personally, I cringe when I see pictures on Facebook of dogs surrendered at a shelter. I won’t get into the why’s and wherefore’s of surrendering a pet to a shelter, that’s a story for another day, but I have to speak out and say it breaks my heart to see how sad those animals are! And, I believe even $5 a month, by 5000 people, over the space of a year, could do wonders to at least alleviate the suffering of those dogs. That’s $300,000 folks. Oh yeah, it could go far to making the stay at a shelter a little happier, a little warmer, a little softer.
So, if you can’t help a mutt on National Mutt Day, by donating to a shelter of choice, can you check out what that shelter needs in the way of supplies or volunteers? Lots of people do that to help. It’s worth more than the $5, in my opinion.
Just stop and think about the mutts, if you would. The dogs society turns its back on, most often. The dogs that are created because some pet parents aren’t responsible enough to have their dogs spayed and neutered. The dogs that came into this world through no fault of their own. They want to be loved and cared for, too.
Mutts have so much to give – can you help out by bringing one home to your loving house today? Or, by making a donation? Or, by sharing this post?
And, if you’re lucky enough to have a mutt at your house, give him or her an extra hug today. A big one.
