Puppies undoubtedly look cuter in the shop window than when they stain the kitchen floor brown and yellow, or worse, the upstairs carpet. Intense howling every night for the first week is also not written on the label!
So, when someone gives a puppy as a Christmas present without recognising its immense work, there can be some catastrophic consequences.
    
In the weeks following Christmas, owners come to realise that caring for their new animal is not easy; in fact, it is a full-time job! This new role as the owner is made particularly hard during Christmas, where puppies might eat tinsel and bring a five hundred pound vet bill, chew the Christmas tree, infest the house with fleas,  and eat sentimental Christmas baubles passed down in the family for centuries, some of which have been experienced first-hand. When owners are suddenly met with these incidents, they choose to abandon their pets and dump them in shelters and pet sanctuaries that are already bursting at the seam during Christmas.
    
However, in local areas in  London, many animals sadly experience worse: the RSPCA revealed that three pets are abandoned every hour during Christmas time. Rather than easily sheltering them, however, many owners cruelly dump them in streets, local woods and in some cases even rubbish bins, left cruelly to fend for themselves. Social media has made these numbers rocket as people scroll through adverts for pets on Facebook, Instagram and other sites and the number of abandoned pets is increasing day-by-day.

In 2017, a substantial surge of dogs was abandoned. Superintendent Simon Osborne commented that “During the festive season alone last year, we rescued over 25,000 animals”. Many of these had abandoned brutally in the cold, left to fend for themselves.
    
One of the many animals dumped during Christmas is Candi, a Rottweiler.  A common misconception is that Rottweilers are vicious; they are in fact quite friendly but are trained sometimes to be violent.  Candi was found tied up outside a police station in Hertfordshire when she was just a one-year-old puppy. Luckily, however, she was rescued and brought into the care of the Blue Cross rehoming centre. This charity specifically cares for sick and abandoned animals such as Candi and managed to find a new and loving owner, John, who changed her life. 

The Centre Manager at Blue Cross Hertfordshire commented: 
“Candi is a beautiful, affectionate girl. She would get so excited to see her new owner John; it was the joy of her day!” 
John had recently lost his 14-year-old Labrador and filled his loss with Candi. Despite having early negative experiences with humans, Candi is friendly to anyone she meets!
This case vividly portrays the positive effect on your life to rehome an abandoned pet, and the effect on the animal: it changes their lives.

 Therefore,  before welcoming furry friends in the family, it’s well worth considering whether you can support them and their needs. Many challenges owners face include the hefty price that comes with puppies, involving food bills, vet bills and check-ups, and, of course, their regular mischievous activities.
Some dogs live until 15 years, so it is an important decision whether you have the time and compassion to care for your pet. 
If you can support a puppy, adopting them from shelters such as Battersea Homes will give them the gift of a new life, and will mean they have someone’s life-long affection, even if they do manage to take down the Christmas tree!