Sharing some of Max’s Thoughts:

I am Max, a beagle, and I carry the earth!   I love hiking in nature and get everywhere I want to go on foot—I never burn fossil fuel to go places.   I do not waste water; in fact, I hate baths and drink only when thirsty.   I do not buy many things, as I do not need clothes and because I am a beagle, I don’t play ball or have toys.   Instead, I love hunting, which consists of  tracking down food or chasing animals outside to keep them on their toes. When I encounter trash, I eat it!   I only generate biodegradable trash and I never use plastic- I eat it!  I especially don’t throw plastic into the ocean, I try to eat it.  My dog food comes in paper bags (which gets recycled) and I eat a lot of leftover food that might otherwise be thrown out. I never waste food as I always eat everything in my bowl. I also vacuum up crumbs around the house.
I am Max and I definitely carry the earth!

Now my thoughts…
We live in Southern California where it has recently gotten to 115 degrees in the shade at our home. My husband was in Montpellier, France for work during the week of the heat wave– June 26-28. The record heat in Southern France, which I heard approached 113 degrees, was a more humid heat than we get and it was oppressive—so much so that the pet dogs were collapsing all over the place. When their body temperature rises they can’t sweat like we do. They can only exchange heat by panting. Since most dogs like Max have a small carbon footprint, as demonstrated above, let us make ours smaller to take care of our own future and that of our pets who are not responsible for the climate change that is causing them to suffer.