Some people put the brakes on pet travel
By Keith Turner
August 26, 2008
A recent USA Today Snapshot relayed information from a survey that asked adult drivers which of the following choices would they prohibit in their vehicles (results in parenthesis):
Smoking (65%)
Wet Clothes (35%)
Pets (32%)
Dirty Shoes (25%)
Eating and Drinking (21%)
None of the Above (19%)
As a pet owner and a father of two children, all I can say is that I could eliminate three out of five of those by simply banning my kids from my car and letting the dogs ride.
Honestly, I’m kinda suprised by the “Pets (32%)”. Don’t over half of all U.S. households have a dog? Yet a third of survey respondants prohibit pets in their cars? Really?!? The concept’s just so foreign to me. ;-)
I suppose there could be arguments about the kinds of people willing to participate in a survey, and how many of the respondents, who said they prohibit pets, actually even have pets that might need to ride in the car, to begin with. (?)
And there are people who prohibit eating and drinking? Really?!? What the heck are they trying to hold onto? I have the “clean freak” gene, I think, and I’m the one most likely to eat and drink in our vehicles.
My husband and I have had some really nice cars, over the years, and the only thing I can think of that we “prohibit” is smoking. (I have a strong sensitivity to cigarette smoke.) But if our car were to get soiled by anything from the list, even a smoker, we’d…oh my goodness…clean the car. Imagine that. ;-)
I can’t help but be reminded of Randy Pausch’s “The Last Lecture” where he tells the story of his sister admonishing her children not to soil his brand new car in any way. When he heard this, he walked over to his new car, and poured a can of Coke directly on the back seat. Thus demonstrating the car is just a thing, and people (and their value and experiences) are what’s really important. :-)
Comment by Marjorie — August 27, 2008 @ 5:18 pm