Also, and I cannot say this loud enough, separation anxiety is real and can be crippling for your pets. https://twitter.com/dusterdawnhorse/status/1258604308137865222

Prior to shelter-in-place orders, our dog spent time socializing with other dogs and humans at our local dog park at least five times per week.

We go out to pet-friendly restaurants and visit family often, where he interacts with other people A LOT.

We adopted him when he was 12 weeks old and began socializing him as soon as he had all of his initial vaccines.

We have been loving on him with all our hearts for over a year.

With all of the time, attention and exercise we put in for him he still struggles some days while we are at work.

And in the last two months he has grown far more attached to us. Whining and crying when we leave him for the shortest amount of time.

We are not human parents, but going back to work is going to be a huge adjustment; because our dog has developed separation anxiety as a result of this situation.

It will take weeks of us leaving him for larger increments of time until he’s used to us being gone again.

This will be so much more difficult on him than it will be on us. We have no way to explain to him why we are leaving him alone again.

So if you’re thinking of adopting a pet during this time, think hard about how that pet will fit into your life when this is over.

If you’ve adopted a pet that hasn’t been socialized prior to this pandemic, you owe it to yourself, your pet and the people you love to commit to appropriate behavior training so your pet can interact safely with others.

The longer this goes on, the harder training could be.

This concludes my twitter rant, I’ll step down from the box.

But seriously... just think before you dive in, and be brutally honest with yourself and the way you want to live.

Also, #AdoptDontShop