Manual Offers Pet Care Advice

When a friend asked Rennie Chamberlain what would she be most concerned about if something happened to her, she didn’t pause. “My dogs.”

Rennie and her husband Tony are dog people—they’ve owned small, (a 25-lb. Puli) and large; they’re on their sixth 100-lb. Bouvier.

“When we were all young, I didn’t think about the future much,” the Santa Monica Canyon resident says. “Now that I’m older I realize that things can happen. Anything can put you in bed for a time.”

In fact, when Rennie was recuperating from back surgery a few years ago, “I couldn’t even stand up, let alone walk to take care of the dog.”

Familiar with books intended to help human beings prepare for everyday disasters, plan for the future, care for aging parents, and outline health-care wishes and financial settlements, Chamberlain was motivated to write such a guide for pet owners.

“I like animals and wanted to help,” she says. “I had intended to create a booklet of mostly pet forms, but after researching the guides created by the Humane Society and the SPCA, there was something about them that seemed tedious. It would take six months or longer just to fill out the notebook; I was thinking that this could be done in a couple of hours.”

Chamberlain’s solution, “Who Will Care for Your Pet If Something Happens to You?” contains step-by-step instructions and easy-to-fill-out pet forms, for any kind of pet.

The short form covers basic information, such as main contacts, type of dog, diet specifications, medications and allergies.

“I prefer the long form,” Chamberlain says. “If I am going to take in a pet, I would want to know about that animal. I want to know its behaviors. Is it friendly?” There is an opportunity to talk about your pet’s sleeping arrangement, favorite games, travel behavior. Even something as seemingly obvious as where the pet carrier is can be noted in the book.

Finding a person who will take care of your pet for a weekend or even more critical, long-term, is a key question, Chamberlain says.

“As we get older, we don’t have a lot of friends who can have dogs or can take care of them. So that leaves alternatives such as pet organizations, retirement homes, veterinarians or breed organizations. Only 12 to 27 percent of animal owners make provisions for their pets.”

Chamberlain offers a couple of reasons for this. “Often people don’t want to think about the inevitable accident, death or illness, or they think that there are legal hassles that would require a lawyer to fill out the directive, or the most frequent reason is that the forms are just too complicated.

“These forms can be what you want them to be; you can put as little or as much as you want,” says Chamberlain, who has also included information on a variety of animals. Birds, horses and turtles are problematic because they have such long lives.

“Birds present a special case,” Chamberlain says. “They need 12 hours of uninterrupted sleep. So they can’t be placed in a room where the TV is blaring all the time.”

In her notes on evacuation in case of fire or earthquake, Chamberlain advises taking certain animals with you. “Place the bird in a pillowcase and carry it with you,” she cautions. “If their wings are clipped, they’re helpless. Other animals should be left unchained and free to do what comes naturally.”

The American Veterinary Medical Association estimated that there were some 70 million dogs in the country as of 2011, and about 36 million households owned at least one cat.

Chamberlain believes pet owners must realize that there are costs of having a pet, both financial and ethical.

“I love my dog,” she says, “And with every succeeding dog, I have become a better caretaker. In the confusion and emotional turmoil that can come with a death, illness or an incapacitating accident, pets are often forgotten. Those of us who dearly love our pets fret about things like this—but we need not stress about it, not if we are prepared.”

For more information, visit renniechamberlain.com

Rennie Chamberlain, a writer and animal advocate, has written several articles on animals and a children’s book, “Phoenix the Mountain Lion Gets a Job.” She sits on the advisory board of The Nature of Wildworks, a willdlife education and care center in Topanga.