B-Town's Dog Blogger Marley A. Mutt: It’s Gettin’ Hot in Here

By Marley A. Mutt It is gettin’ hot in here! I’m a dog, so I’m not going to talk about climate change and how the earth is getting warmer and warmer primarily due to impacts our human friends are making. I’m just here to say: it’s hot, please don’t leave us in the frickin’ car. When temperatures outside start to reach 80 degrees and more, like they did over the weekend and will today and later this week, the temperature inside a car parked in the sun can climb to over 130 degrees in a matter of minutes. You might think: “Oh, I’m going to bring my furry friend to the store for just a second, I only need to grab that one thing.” You leave us in the car, imagining a 5-minute jog down the aisle and a quick breeze through the express line. However, life doesn’t go as planned. They moved that one thing you needed from aisle 1 to aisle 22. The express lines are packed because 20 other people just need one thing too and then the debit card machine is broken or the person in front of you needs to talk to the manager because “The sign says 20% off”. Long story short, that 5-minute trip to the store becomes 20 pretty quickly and your fur baby is now baking inside your car. Literally baking. According to my friends as the ASPCA, thousands of animals suffer heatstroke and death every year because their human left them in the car a few minutes too long. We can control a lot of things in our lives, and a lot of things we can’t. Please, please, please don’t make the mistake of taking us on that errand or trip with you this time of year. It’s a lot harder for us to regulate our body temperatures. We can’t take off our clothes, or cool down as quickly as you humans when we get too hot. Of course, we want to go with you to the store. We love car rides, the wind in our ears and the thrill of adventure. You are our human, our family, our everything, we will follow you ANYWHERE. Be prepared that we will look at you with sad puppy eyes we’ve spent our life times perfecting. We will whine and cry and beg for you to take us along. Be strong. Don’t fall victim to our canine emotional manipulation. Prove to us that you are the more evolved and pragmatic species and do the right thing, even if it makes you sad to shut that door and hear us scratch and whine pathetically as you make your way to the car to run those quick errands to the dry cleaner, pharmacy or market. Just spend some quality time with us when you get back. You’ll be glad you did and we’ll be glad when we’re not stuck in that hot oven of a car.]]>