Don’t buy a dog – but buy a dog a home!

Double Vision with Charlie Adley

There’s a parcel for you in the newsroom. Will I send it to you?” “No, thanks, I’m in town on Monday. I’ll pick it up.” Hmmm, wonder what that is. Over the decades I’ve been sent many things by readers: some delightful, others disgusting.

Possibly a fair reflection of these colyooms.

It’s a tiny little present, perfectly wrapped with scarlet paper and a bow, which reveals a yellow box, inside which lies a tea bag.

Someone’s gone to a lot of trouble to send me a tea bag. Perhaps they find my blather boring, and have contrived to liven up Double Vision with a dose of magic mushrooms.

Ah, there, a yellow tag at the end of the attached string, with #PawsForThought printed in black.

Now I know what we’re dealing with. This is the Dog’s Trust campaign. What is it with dog’s charities and creative marketing? This time last year I received another cute parcel, inside which was a slip of paper printed #stopkeepingmum, a campaign to counteract the evils of puppy farms.

This colyoom weekly receives umpteen requests to write about this, that and the other. Press release emails arrive advertising Cubist face painting festivals in Waterford and Organic Beetle Weaving Workshops in Carrick on Shannon.

Far away and less than thrilling, they are mostly left ignored, but just as I was this time last year, I’m quietly impressed with the dog charity’s minimalist tactics.

Instead of shouting their cause in bold print, they created a puzzle that I can choose to look into further.

Thing is, they’re preaching to the converted. Four years ago, the Snapper and I adopted a Labrador/Collie cross (most people call them ‘Labrollies’ but I’m quite a fan of Colliador’) called Lady, from the most excellent folk at madra.ie

We didn’t buy her, because you cannot buy a dog.

You cannot give a dog to somebody else.

What you can do is buy a dog a home, for the entirety of its life.

To read Charlie’s column in full, please see this week’s Galway City Tribune.