Helicopter Parenting For Pet Owners

Lifestyle

- Lenore Skenazy

When Lisa Weiss and her family decided to adopt a dog a few years ago, they contacted a rescue organization near their home in Chappaqua, New York, and were told to fill out a form.

“It was, like, 20 pages!” Weiss, a lawyer, recalls. “It took me an hour. I was very honest and very detailed because I was pretty proud of what great pet parents we are. I thought we were fantastic. We had a Lab rescue who had lived to 13, which was well past her sell-by date. She died of old age, no illnesses. She was a happy, outside dog. We had an electric fence and she came and went as she pleased. She was a completely independent soul.”

Right on—free-range!

And yet there was still more information the form demanded. “It also asked things like ‘Who will take the dog if you die?’” recalls Weiss. “And ‘If you both die, who takes the dog?’” Slightly freaked out, she nominated her sister-in-law.

When all her ts were crossed, she submitted the paperwork and waited to hear back from the rescuers.

And waited. And waited.

Finally, she called to ask what was taking so long “and they were like, ‘Oh, we rejected you.’”