Poor Marcus!

My ambulance partner was sitting across the table from me, reading the obituaries. Poor Marcus Melbourne. Dead at 18 years of age. Barely had a chance at life. "Were we on that call?" she asked me. Neither one of us thought it sounded familiar. The name didn't ring a bell, but surely we would have heard something if a teenager in our community had recently passed away.

Marcus, the obituary read, had been buried in the back yard of the Melbourne Estate. What? Since when can you bury someone in your own yard? Wait! This was an obituary for a CAT! Have people really gone so far as to write obituaries for a pet as though they were human?

Apparently pets are taking the place of children in our society, and not just for the elderly. It's not uncommon to lavish the love and affection upon a pet that was once reserved for your children, but in a society where less and less people are having fewer children, pets are taking up the slack. There is a huge market for all kinds of pet paraphernalia, from ridiculous doggie dresses to boutiques geared for high income people (think yuppies) who want upscale and innovate accessories for their pets.

It should come as no surprise that there are growing numbers of young couples who have no desire for children, but instead get themselves several dogs and a few cats to fill the void of longing that has been instilled in them by the natural law of God. To these people, children are an inconvenience, a nuisance that can be avoided with birth control and abortion. I wonder who will be around to write their obituaries when they die? Surely not Marcus.