Good morning, welcome to the first workday of the week. A nice four-day week is before us. Commence the sprint.
Actually, I know a lot of people are off this week. Kids out of school, the state Legislature isn’t in session = a good time to take a little trip. If that’s the case for you, I’m jealous.
The fact that I AM working on National Love Your Pet Day (not to be confused with National Pet Day, which is on April 11), however, gives me an opportunity to weigh in on. topic about which I feel very passionately: My dogs.
In case you didn’t get the memo, there are now three of them. Or, as I like to say to my extremely skeptical and long-suffering spouse, really it’s 2.5 dogs, because the newest addition – Gizmo – is so small. Eight pounds and changes can hardly be considered a whole dog, right?
If you met Giz, though, you would definitely raise an eyebrow at this claim – as Steve so often does. He has a big personality, not to mention a big bark, for a little dog.
And, he recently went under the knife to have his manhood removed, much to his chagrin. It was time – the bed humping was getting a little out of control. His adjustment to the cone of shame has not been an easy one.
He’s doing a lot of bumping into things and trying to back out of the cone and getting it stuck in his mouth, which is one part hilarious and one part pathetic. The other dogs are understandably skittish of the bumbling menace among them, and spend a lot of time barking and growling at him.
I did buy one of those recovery onesies, but I’m nervous to put it on him. And also, I’m not exactly sure how I’m supposed to get him out of it to pee? Follow him around all day? Not happening.
In short, it’s chaos. I love it. Steve, not so much. Perhaps it will come as cold comfort to him (especially when he’s out walking the big boy, Manny, at 4 a.m.) to learn that he’s hardly alone.
According to the American Pet Products Association, 66 percent of U.S. households – 86.9 million home – own a pet, of which the vast majority are dogs (65.1 million), followed by cats (46.5 million) and freshwater fish (11.1 million households). Pet ownership has grown considerable, up from up from 56 percent in 1988.
Owning a pet is not cheap. Essential dog expenses, for example, cost an average of $1,533 a year. (I’m not sure who these average people are, as I’m pretty sure I spent that on vet bills along in the two months of this year).
In 2022, Americans spent close to $137 billion on their pets – again, according to American Pet Products Association stats – which is up about 11 percent from the year before, ($123.6 billion).
This might be why households with annual incomes of $100,000+ are more likely to own a pet, though those who live rural – with more room for pets that do so to run around – are more likely (71 percent) to own a furry friend than those living in urban areas, according to the Pew Research Center.
No matter where they live, pretty much everyone who has a pet considers them a member of the family (see the above link) – as much, if not more so, than the humans who live in the household. Considering the unconditional love factor a pet offers – perhaps more a dog than a cat or a fish, however – I’m not at all surprised about this stat.
I AM surprised to learn that about half of the people who decided to get a dog have some sort of regrets about doing so. Often this has to do with the resentment one family member (usually mom, I think) feels about having the caring responsibilities foisted almost entirely upon them when others swore up and down they would be sharing the load.
This brings us to the not-so-nice portion of this post.
Shelters across the nation are struggling to handle an influx of pandemic pets given up by erstwhile owners who find they just don’t have the time anymore to do the walking, and the feeding, and the vet-bringing etc. now that the COVID restrictions have been lifted. Inflation is also making EVERYTHING – including pet ownership – more expensive, which is another factor in the decision-making process when people give up their fur babies.
I will refrain from saying nasty things about people who abandon their pets, other than to say that I simply don’t understand how anyone could be so cold.
Today’s PSA is simple: Please, please, please think long and hard about whether you can afford – in time and money – to get a pet before you do so. Even something as seemingly low maintenance as a fish needs care. If you’re not in a position to give a pet a forever home and MEAN IT, well, just don’t.
It will be mostly sunny today with temperatures in the high 30s. The wind will have died down, which should make this a fairly nice winter day.
In the headlines…
President Joe Biden’s great-great-grandfather was charged with attempted murder after a civil war-era brawl – but pardoned of any wrongdoing by Abraham Lincoln.
Biden’s ancestor, Moses Robinette, was put in the dock after he came to blows with one John Alexander, a fellow civilian employee of the Union Army, on March 21, 1864, according to records found by the Washington Post.
The Post reports that Robinette, who was then working as a veterinary surgeon for the army, argued that he was acting in self defense, but was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to two years hard labor.
Biden called the behavior of House Republicans “shocking” for “walking away from the threat of Russia” for not passing aid for Ukraine.
Biden said he is willing to meet with House of Representatives Speaker Mike Johnson to discuss a funding bill for Ukraine’s war against Russia, saying that Republicans are making a mistake by opposing the aid package.
The president said he is “considering additional sanctions” against Moscow following the death of imprisoned Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny.
“We already have sanctions,” Biden told reporters at the White House, but the United States is looking at others. He had already directly blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin and his “thugs” for Navalny’s death last week.
Yulia Navalnaya, the widow of deceased Russian opposition leader, vowed to carry on her husband’s work, saying she “will continue to fight for the freedom of our country,” and, “I call on you to stand by me.”
“I have no right to give up. I will continue the work of Alexei Navalny,” said Navalnaya, 47, in an emotional video posted to the YouTube channel of her late husband.
The nearly nine-minute video, which showed Navalnaya seated with her hands folded on a marble surface under dramatic lighting, was crafted as an introduction of sorts to a new leader of the fractured pro-democracy movement against President Vladimir Putin.
Trump stopped short of condemning Navalny’s death, but drew a curious comparison between it and his own legal troubles.
Bracing for yet another election against Trump, America’s liberals are feeling the fatigue. “We’re kind of, like, crises-ed out,” one Democrat said.
After long anticipation from its reeling residents, Biden visited the small Ohio village of East Palestine a year after a Norfolk Southern train derailed and spilled hazardous chemicals to reaffirm his pledge to do right by residents.
Today and tomorrow, Biden is expected to be in LA and San Francisco to raise money for his reelection campaign.
The New York Times Publisher A.G. Sulzberger said that the White House is “extremely upset” about its coverage on Biden’s age but the newspaper will “continue to report fully and fairly.”
“We are going to continue to report fully and fairly, not just on Donald Trump but also on President Joe Biden,” Sulzberger said in an interview with The Reuters Institute for the Study of Journalism.
The Biden administration said that the government intends to provide $1.5 billion to the computer chip company GlobalFoundries to expand its domestic production in New York and Vermont.
Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer said that the projects the grant will help fund are expected to create more than 10,000 jobs.
Schumer paid a visit to Syracuse yesterday where, alongside local leaders, he called on Congress to reauthorize the Undetectable Firearms Act.
Truckers supporting Trump are warning that their refusal to deliver to the Big Apple could paralyze New York City — as more drivers vow to join the boycott following the bombshell ruling in the former president’s civil fraud case.
Chatter about shutting down supplies to the nation’s biggest city began when trucker and influencer Chicago Ray posted an angry rant on X in which he claimed to have spoken to 10 drivers also upset about verdicts that went against Trump in recent weeks.
The United States is reportedly negotiating a U.N. Security Council Resolution that proposes a temporary cease-fire “as soon as practicable” and warns Israel against invading an area of southern Gaza that many people have fled to.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels are suspected in an attack that damaged a Belize-flagged ship traveling through the Bab el-Mandeb Strait connecting the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, authorities said.
One of Gaza’s biggest hospitals has been reduced to little more than a shelter for a small, terrified crew of patients and medical staff, while food and fuel supplies are almost gone at another hospital that has endured a nearly monthlong siege in the same city.
Israel’s plans for a ground offensive in Rafah have received criticism from the international community, as displaced Palestinians sheltering in the area say they are preparing for the worst.
Representatives of the Palestinians argued at the United Nations’ top court that Israel’s decades-long occupation had violated international law and subjected Palestinians to what one said was a choice among “displacement, subjugation or death.”
Embattled “Squad” member Rep. Jamaal Bowman is being roundly criticized by pro-Israel activists for forming a joint fundraising committee with Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib.
Tom Suozzi’s victory last week in a special House election stopped a Republican winning streak on Long Island and suggests its House races may be competitive.
House Speaker Mike Johnson will travel to Binghamton Thursday for an event with Republican U.S. Rep. Marc Molinaro focused on law enforcement funding and public safety.
Gov. Kathy Hochul has extended the statute of limitations for unlawful discrimination claims from one year to three years.
State legislative leaders are expected to name the nine people who will study reparations for descendants of enslaved people and consequences of New York’s impacts on the slave trade before Black History Month ends, lawmakers said.
Amid rising concerns about problem gambling behaviors and disorders, legislators are taking action to double down on reducing and treating the issues with legislation that would curb the ability of mobile sportsbooks to advertise.
A former Gold Gloves boxing champ and celebrity fitness trainer on TV’s “The Biggest Loser” launched a bid to “knock out” three-term Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in the November election.
The Brooklyn Nets have fired coach Jacque Vaughn after a 21-33 start to the season, the team announced Monday. Vaughn has coached the Nets for 129 games in this current stint, leading the team to a 64-65 record.
Long considered more affordable than New York City, the Hudson Valley presents a stark example of how the nationwide housing crisis is squeezing renters.
Scattered across rocks, nestled in tall grasses and embedded in the sand along the Hoosic River are half-centimeter pieces of plastic known as nurdles that spilled into the waterway after a train derailed Feb. 7, in Valley Falls.
Matthew R. Coseo’s abrupt exit from the race for Saratoga County court judge has left the county Republican Committee poised to select a former longtime assistant DA for the nomination — bypassing two other attorneys who had also vied for the nomination.
Photo credit: George Fazio.
