Return of the Rant: "Lolita" Pets

We've all heard about them. Most have seen them. Some even want one. A cute little puppy or kitty to dress up and show off with your latest dress. Maybe they even match your print? A bischon with your Innocent World, poodles with your Angelic Pretty, kittens for your Metamorphose. It's adorable! Dress them up too! Put a bow on their heads! And carry them around in your purse! Aren't they the cutest?

No. I'm sorry. Pets are not accessories. They are living, breathing things that should be treated better than dressed up and shoved in a purse to be carried around for hours. They have legs, they need to walk. Unless you have a chihuahua and you're outside in the middle of winter your pet does not need clothes. In fact most clothes for pets, especially in the summer, can cause your animal to overheat. Those cute little booties you put on your pup? They're good for keeping his feet dry while outside in the cold, but when inside they can cause infections between the pads. How's that for cute?

"Teacup" breeds are the worst. Dogs are inbred to become smaller and smaller, more fashionable. Meanwhile, the inbreeding promotes breed-specific health risks. Not to mention more immediate dangers such as taking jumps off something as low as a couch. The small breeds are fragile and breeding them even smaller makes things worse. On the same vein are the "designer dogs" like Goldendoodles and Puggles. They are bred with the intention to make them more hardy or hypo-allergenic. But what designer breeders don't tell you is that the chance for these positive traits to come out is the same for the chance of negative traits of both breeds coming out. You don't know what you're going to get. So, with Puggles for example, you can get the easy overheating, respiratory problems, and nose wrinkle infections from the Pug as well as the destructive properties, weight issues, and heart disease from the Beagle. Sure, it's cute, but you're probably not getting as good of a dog that you think you're buying. Not to mention, a designer dog's price tag can be more than a purebred's. You can be paying upwards for $1k for nothing more than a fancy mutt!

All animals grow up. Puppies become dogs. Kittens become cats. They get old. The bills for the vet visits grow. They no longer look so cute next to your kitten print, and tend to get hair all over it. Not to mention that a lot of animals sold as "teacup" breeds are actually just premature puppies or kittens. They grow up to be full sized and have even more health problems. They don't fit in your purse anymore. And they whine to be picked up still because all you've done is carry them around their whole lives.

I realize I'm being harsh with this rant but 1) it's a rant, 2) it's my blog, and 3) this is an issue I feel strongly about, not just within lolita. I worked in the animal care industry for over five years. I have seen dogs bought as accessories suffer through many problems, health, mental, and otherwise. I have cried when animals I've known for years were put down or given away simply because the owner was bored with them, or they were no longer cute, or were too much of a handful. I know this is a harsh rant but what I'm getting at is please think about the animal that you're buying. Are you getting it for an accessory? For something to coo over for a couple weeks and then get bored of? To dress up and show off? Or are you looking for a new friend for life? To give an unloved animal a new lease at life? To make your world and theirs a little bit brighter? Animals are not your personal playthings. Consider this before you go to buy one. Or even better, consider this and then go to your local shelter or pound and adopt that scruffy looking mutt in the corner. He or she will be your best friend as long as you care for them right.

Pictured: My old man Buddy. Part Husky, part Beagle, part Australian Cattle Dog, all Love.
There's nothing lolita about him, but I couldn't ask for more.