Will Sam Suffer When I Die?

Boy, this idea really has me spooked.

While returning home from a New Year’s Eve party last night, I suddenly started wondering what would become of Sam if some drunk driver slammed into Kathleen and me head on and killed us. Sam was home alone, not just alone in the house, which would have been bad enough, but alone locked in his crate where we usually put him down to bed at night.

If Kathleen and I were killed and no one knew Sam was home in his crate he could sit there for days trying not to pee or poop, but finally succumbing to his natural urges, and he would slowly die of thirst or starve to death laying in his own filth. OMG! It’s just too horrible to imagine. What am I going to do? How can I ensure this kind of thing doesn’t happen to Sam?

I thought I saw or read somewhere something about a sticker I could put on the house entry door or in a nearby window, that would alert police or fire personnel, in case of fire or some other type of emergency (earthquake maybe), that there was a dog in the house. But I haven’t been able to run that down on the internet.

Unfortunately though, even if I did have a sticker on my door or window, that still wouldn’t help Sam in the case where I was suddenly killed and nobody knew he was home alone. This is almost worse than being killed on a trip after you’ve left your children alone at home. Hopefully, you would have left your children with someone (right?), or a relative or neighbor would surely know they needed help if you were killed. But Sam . . .

Maybe we need to start an organization that sells wristbands or wallet cards, sort of like Medic Alert, only we’d call it Pet Alert. No, how about Sam Alert? You could wear the wristband or carry the card in your wallet so if you were killed, emergency or medical personnel would see it. I would put the telephone number of someone I trusted or that Sam knew, on the wristband or wallet card asking emergency or medical personnel to call that number in case of my death so Sam could be rescued. I wonder if there would have to be phrasing on the band or card to the effect that I gave the person at the telephone number to be called the right and authority to enter my house to rescue my little buddy ? Obviously, this needs more research.

Unless there already is some such system in place that I don’t know about. If you know of one, please tell me ASAP. I don’t know how well I’m going to be able to sleep at night until I resolve this problem. This is one of the worst nightmares I’ve ever had.