Sad Touching Pet Stories

THE BIG THING: We've all read them. Stories about pets that leave us with leaky eyes. Sad stories, inspirational stories, happy stories. Most of the time, the stories are true.

Sometimes they aren't...

There is one going around this month that isn't true. It's about Reggie, a black lab who is adopted from a shelter and is about to be returned there. Then the adoptive owner remembers the sealed letter from the former owner. You can read the whole story HERE. The snopes site also discusses the research they did.

Whenever I read stories like these that sound a bit "too good", I always check at snopes.com. They research these things carefully. Sadly, this one seems to be invented...

Now it is true, as snopes points out, "that the story may not be literal truth does not prevent it from being figurative truth. Those who serve overseas do so at the cost of great personal sacrifice. A tale such as this - literal truth or not - serves to remind us all of how much they give and how much we owe them."

I have no doubt that some soldiers and civilians who serve overseas do indeed leave cherished pets behind with family, surrender their pets to shelters or to strangers. And some do not return to see their cherished friends again.

But I seriously wish that people would not invent such stories and spread them around. There is enough real sadness in true stories...