By the end of August of 2017, Houstonians started receiving text and paper notifications about how to seek shelter during natural disasters. One of the sentences was highlighted: “You can’t bring your pets to shelter.” Only a couple of days later, ‘Space City’ was under the water. One can only assume what happened to people who had to choose between their four-legged and two-legged children. What was going through their heads, when they were deciding between staying home to keep their whole family together, and leaving, tearing their family apart? How did they feel when they were turning their back to one child while saving another?
Pets, regardless of how much people love them and considered to be part of the family, are labeled as property. The only difference is that property is insured, and, in a case of damage or loss, the owner will be reimbursed. On the other hand, if anything happened to a pet, there is no replacement for life. There is no remedy for a broken heart. But there will be many of those who will never understand such grief. They would say so simple, but so hurtful things. “It was just a dog. You can get another one. Leave t. Forget it.”