When I first started to think about writing this blog, as is fairly obvious I hope from the name, it was on my mind that so many thousands of dogs were dying needlessly each year in shelters and pounds across the country. Realistically I can’t imagine it was ever likely that KiKi become a part of that number but who knows. In another place rather than ASH, in a County Pound with a high ‘kill rate’ she might well have been no more than a statistic by now. Every day she has spent here with us , about ten dogs died somewhere in the country, the 2014 figures being only slightly down on the previous year. The factors behind this situation are several, first and foremost being that many people buy a dog without really thinking through what this decision is going to bring. Buying a dog for the children for instance. Really? Are the kids going to housetrain the pup and walk it twice a day for the next ten to fifteen years? Are the kids going to be the ones to feed and care for the dog throughout its lifetime? Hardly likely. Undoubtedly there are thousands of kids out there who would really like a puppy, but that’s exactly what they want. A puppy to play with, just like all their other toys. I’m not too concerned if they outgrow the enthusiasm they once had for the Xbox and it ends up on a buy-and-sell site somewhere, but the number of dogs who find themselves going down that route or in a pound, or abandoned at the side of a road is frightening. Aside from all the evidence that in some cases dogs end up being used as bait or combatants in illegal dog fighting, the more worrying thing I think, is that we collectively seem to be OK with the idea that these animals are essentially disposable.