frostdarrennn: "What do divorces and pets have in common?"

My dog Susie says

Fighting like cats and dogs.

A long-time friend of my mom and dad from L.A. recently got divorced. Unfortunately, since the divorce the ex-couple has fought much more over their beagle Sammy than their kids. In fact, divorce issues over pets has become big business. Two brand new occupations now exist, in part, because of these human breakups: ?Pet Consultant? and ?Pet Detectives.? And I'm not talking about Jim Carrey!

It seems that in most divorce cases, the pet goes with the child. However, what's a judge to rule when the pet is the child? There are attorneys who specialize just in pet custody cases. Leave it to the lawyers to get ahead of the pack. Also, the pet consultant can be utilized as an expert to help everyone settle their disagreements. People are not embarrassed anymore, as in the past, to fight for custody of a pet. Couples are actually writing in their pre-nups what to do with their pets if they break-up. I wonder if that applies to goldfish?

So a divorced couple usually means shared custody of their animals. In the case of dogs, I wonder if the sharing means more treats! For couples now living in separate cities, it sure means more travel including airplanes. I sure hope my big mommy and daddy don't get divorced because I'd really hate to fly in that airplane dungeon. Maybe they would agree to fly me first-class? Just kidding.... I'm going to make sure that I entertain both of them so much, they'll never leave each other. Now what exactly is a pet detective and how did it start?

The pet detective occupation started with finding lost dogs and cats. With the advent of the rising divorce rate, it's grown exponentially to help lawyers and ex-spouses determine how a pet is being treated by the other person when they have custody. It seems that a few years ago, an estranged wife decided to have her husband's German Shepherds euthanized while he was out of town. That should be illegal! Hopefully, that won't happen again.

The pet detective business has become so popular around the country that professional people like nurses, accountants, and businessmen and businesswomen are doing it full-time. Some pet detectives have actually trained their own dogs to find missing or lost pets. One woman in Maine, Liza Nazarenko, has a 90% success rate for finding lost animals. She became a professional pet detective because she had lost her beloved Yellow Lab, Cappuccino. She looked everywhere, posted pictures, and asked for assistance from countless people, but to no avail. Cappuccino was eventually discovered deceased two months later and less than a mile away from her home. Very sad, but Liza turned a negative into a positive experience by helping others find their beloved pets.

Hey, I think I could get the neighborhood dogs to form a group to help find missing pets. We've got a Boxer, Dachshund, Border Collie, Irish Setter, Black Lab, Golden Retriever, Bulldog, Cocker Spaniel, and two German Shepherds. How about naming our dog detective group, the ?Sherlock Shepherds?? What do you think?

Catch you later,

Susie and Sandy

P.S. Author Tom Clancy once told me, ?A trial lawyer is exactly like an attack dog, only without a conscience.?

For more barks from Susie go to:? http://sandy-steele.blogspot.com

For info on Sandy Steele: http://sandysteele.com