National Mutt Day
Introduction to National Mutt Day
December 2nd is National Mutt Day. National Mutt Day is a day to celebrate the mixed breeds of dogs and cats in the world. More and more cats and dogs are very rarely just one breed. They are often a combination of two or more breeds. And today is to celebrate the Mutts of our lives.
What is National Mutt Day?
Again, if you haven’t read above. You may have skimmed right to this section to see what National Mutt Day is. Well, silly goose! You just missed it! But to say it again in a different spin, it’s a day to celebrate the mixed breeds of cats and dogs. Desperately longing for a new home, millions of loving and healthy mixed breed dogs in shelters are waiting for someone to come and adopt them. National Mutt Day provides an excellent opportunity to find the perfect canine companion.
Most people think they want a purebred dog or a certain breed of cat. What they don’t realize is unless they are getting that breed from a certified shelter, they may be getting a partial mutt. I bet none of you noticed
the difference! So why not just get a shelter mutt!
If you look at humans, we are all just mutts. We all have different backgrounds, ethnicities, and stories. In only rare instances are people looking for a “purebred” human. Like if someone wanted their daughter to only marry someone that is ‘purebred’ Italian. But I think that’s even a little silly.
Humans are mutts and that makes us even better, so why not with our pets?! Mutts also tend to be healthier than purebred breeds because they help prevent genetic mutations that can occur with purebreds….and if you have read many of my other blog posts, you know that I believe Nurture carries more weight than nature. So you can have the most obedient mutt if you train them correctly. Just like you can have the most disobedient Labrador if you ignore training. So give a mutt a chance! You may surprise yourself.
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How You Can Celebrate National Mutt Day
Now onto the fun part! You’ve educated yourself, now time to have some fun with this new sense of knowledge. You can celebrate National Mutt Day in a number of ways.
1. Celebrate Your Mutt
What a better way to celebrate National Mutt Day than celebrating your mutt of a pet?! One great example is my cat, Phoebe. I was able to do a BasePaws DNA test kit on her to learn about what type of mutt she was. I was able to learn she was part Norwegian Forest Cat, part American shorthair, even part Bengal cat! Every part of her breeds helped shape her uniquely amazing personality.
love that she has the climbing ability of a Norwegian Forest Cat, the attempted playfulness of a Bengal cat, and sleeping abilities of an American Shorthair. So today, she’s going to get a little extra love and catnip.
You can do the same! Whether it is your cat or your dog, celebrate that they are mutts which makes them so unique and special! And as if any of us really needed another excuse to post a picture of our pets, here another one for you! Happy National Mutt Day for our pets to yours! The caption practically writes itself!
2.Volunteer/Foster/Give Back
If you don’t have a pet, or yours is a purebred and now you are feeling guilty (which, don’t! All animals need homes), you can still celebrate National Mutt Day. I lumped my three favorite ways into one section because they all do the same thing in one way or another. Help other animals.
You can volunteer your time at local shelter making sure that these mutts of the shelters are getting love, care, and attention until they are able to find their forever home. Or, you can foster. If you have the ability to foster either dogs or cats, you can provide them with warm homes to sleep in until their forever family realizes their lives are empty without them. And hey! If you do that, then not only are you celebrating National Mutt Day but are also welcoming a mutt into your lives and starting the ripple affect that I will mention later.
Now, if both volunteering and fostering are too hard for you, you can always give back in other ways. You can donate supplies and money to local shelters or organizations. I mean, can shelter cats and dogs ever REALLY have too many supplies? My thought is nope! Never too much.
3.Educate
You can use this newfound knowledge to educate your friends and families about mutts. The biggest problem that comes with adopting today is a lack of education. Heck, even my family was a victim of it for the longest time!
You can spread the word about how truly amazing mutt dogs and cats are. And you can start the ripple effect I mentioned earlier. By you fostering or telling friends and family about mutts you can cause a chain reaction. Maybe your family member goes to the shelter and adopts a mutt because you mentioned that there’s nothing wrong with mixed breeds.
And maybe, because you were talking to your friend about mutts, they brought it up to their friends who adopted a pet and told their friends and family about how awesome mixed breeds were. As one of my friends likes to say, we can create a butterfly effect. Heck, it did for me, but that’s another story. If nothing else, educating yourself is reward enough on National Mutt Day.
Conclusion
We are all mutts in one way or another. Cats and dogs included! So we should learn to celebrate, love, and cherish our pets regardless of their breeds. If you don’t have a pet and are thinking about getting one, go to your local shelter. Give a mutt and chance to change your mind on how sweet they can be. My guess is, you will walk away surprised and forever grateful.