Making plans for the holidays should also include plans to keep your pets safe and healthy.
St. Joseph Animal Shelter Humane Educator Jenna Keyes said wherever you end up for the Thanksgiving holiday, if there’s a lot of family and friends around, make sure your pet has a safe place to be.
“So that they’re not possibly escaping out the door, running away when somebody comes, we definitely don’t want your pet to have to stay here at the shelter over that Thanksgiving weekend and just so that they’re safe and calm, they’re not afraid, they’re not scared of all the commotion going on,” Keyes said. “So keep them in a safe, quiet part of the house, turn on the Christmas music for them, just let them be confident and cool and relaxed.”
Keyes said with the upcoming busy holiday time, it’s a good time to remind pet owners that microchipping is always a good idea for their pets.
“That’s something that you can do anytime during our open business hours, you just need to bring your pet or pets down to the shelter, we can put in a microchip for $10,” Keyes said. “That way if your pet should run away, if animal control picks up your animal, or somebody finds it and brings it to the shelter or any of the local vets, we can scan for that microchip and get your animal back to you faster.”
Keyes said microchipping also serves as a high proof form of ownership.
“I’ve heard stories about people believing that their pets were stolen or saw somebody steal their pets out of their yard,” Keyes said. “Remember, if they’re microchipped, that’s a very high proof of identification and it’s not easy to remove that from the pet either, like a collar tag might be, so definitely those microchips (are) a worthwhile $10.”
Kappy Hodges with the Friends of the St. Joseph Animal Shelter said some foods that may be around during the holiday that are toxic to pets include grapes, raisins and chocolate.
“Those are the kinds of treats that we have out when we have folks around,” Hodges said. “So you want to keep those away from the pets. If your dog ingests grapes or raisins, you definitely want to call the vet and say, ‘Hey, this much was probably eaten. What should I do?’”
Many veterinarians are on call during Thanksgiving for any holiday emergencies.
Hodges said there will be a Pet Preview coming up in December.
“This is where we bring some of the pets from the shelter out into the community for people to see them,” Hodges said.
The event will take place at Upco from 10 a.m. until noon on Saturday, December 10th. Also that day there will be an opportunity for pet pictures with Santa from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.