Hot car education

[Breanna]

I work for Head Start preschool. The other day a mom stayed for the whole preschool day to volunteer which was three hours. I've always really liked her. At the end of the day she was helping me clean up lunch and casually said "well, we better get going. The dog is in the car." It was 103 degrees out that day and 8000 acre fire was burning just miles away. Shocked, I said "your dog is in the car now?!" She said "yeahhh he snuck in when we left the house this morning so I just parked in the shade and cracked the windows." I said nothing else because I work there and she is a mom. I'm still thinking of the poor dog after three hours in a probably 250 degree + car. I'm wondering if I could get permission to hand out an education pamphlet on the dangers of leaving your dog in a hot car. I just can't believe people don't know better...

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

OMG! You would have to pretty much live under a rock or be a complete moron not to know that this is a horribly dangerous thing to do! You can barely read anything vaguely related to dogs these past few months and not see the warnings about leaving dogs in cars in warm weather. 

I think a flyer or pamphlet would be a great idea. Completely impersonal, just another safety handout, nobody could take offense to that. 

[Breanna]

There are flyers about leaving your children in a car, too. Some people just have to be told everything that should be common sense. 

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

True. Sad, but true. 

[Jennifer and Jack]

It might be my mood but I want to clobber her...seriously unfit..poor dog

[Breanna]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tJJ79YoFvM

I stumbled across this video and thought it was pretty interesting. 

[F, Calla & Luca]

I hope the dog survived!

[Adina P]

Did you get a peak at the car/dog?  The woman had to have done more than 'crack' the windows or that dog would be a goner in 3 hours--don't you think!?  Years ago Clark would take his border collie everywhere and he'd park in the shade and the windows would be down ALL the way.  Not that I'd recommend this or do this myself, but when he left his dog in the car, she was never in danger of overheating even in warm weather--not any more than a dog would be being outside without a car.  I'd be afraid of dog theft at that point even if my dog were obedient enough to stay put on her own. 

[Camilla and Darwin]

OMG, I hope the dog is okay.

[Rosemary (Ro) and Enzo]

Where is the common sense in people???? I would love for her to her spend 15 minutes in the car with the windows "cracked"!

I will never forget as a kid, my parents took the family to the Kuntztown fair in Pa. one Summer. We parked on a blacktop parking lot. It just so happened, in coming back to the car at the end of the day, we arrived back at the sametime as the people in the next car did. I was standing next to the car when the woman opens up the car door and calls a dogs name! The windows were also " cracked". There on the drivers side seat lay the dead Dog. A beautiful Irish Setter. The windows were scratched and bloodily from the poor dog fighting to get air. I was about 14/15 and I screamed words I'm sure my parents didn't think I knew. I called that woman every name in the book and remember even going after her. My dad had to pull me back. That beautiful animal suffered for no reason other than a woman's stupidity. Some 40 years later, the vision of that poor animal haunts me. :(

[Breanna]

That is absolutely terrible! I can't imagine...

[Adina P]

Oh my goodness.  HORRIBLE.

[Traci -Bexter & Maggie]

OMD!  That story, Rosemary, is horrible.  I don't have any other words.  I understand how you are haunted. The vision of the bloody windows haunts me.  How cruel.