With the example still fairly fresh in the mind of the Spanish towns devastated by bombing in the Civil War, the expectation here was for an immediate, overwhelming attack from the air the moment that war broke out. (As we now know, that didn't happen and serious attacks were many months away). I suppose that in the circumstances many people, especially in inner city areas, thought that the kindest thing to do, in expectation of that and other horrors, was to put their pet to sleep. And I imagine that that decision was delayed and eventually not made in many thousands of cases. What would any of us done? I like to think that, at the very least, I would "have waited and seen". But who knows?
How did the pets cope when the bombs eventually fell? I wonder at that when I see pet-owning friends trying to protect their animals nowadays from the noise of fireworks on Bonfire Night and New Year's Eve (and their anger when they see similar celebrations stretching to any night of the year when someone wants to celebrate their birthday!) I can imagine the thumps and flashes from 1940-1942 - and saw and heard some of them from a distance - but the noise and mayhem must have had a background of barking dogs. Is that ever mentioned in reports?
I don't know if there was any consideration in our household of putting our beloved mongrel to sleep in September 1939. I very much doubt it although I would have been too young to have been involved in that sort of conversation. So "Rex" (as I shall call him in this delicate age) put up with everything: he quietly accepted his place in the ranking order when he was sent to his kennel in the garage while the rest of us trooped off to the shelter and its relative safety. And was happy to see us again in the morning, as we were him.
"Rex" - bought for 5 shillings in the early 1930s from the travelling greengrocer with his horse and cart - basking in the sun of a pre-war summer by the catmint..... And engaged in the creation of a new garden.... He survived the war and had a happy old age, once again in peacetime and still being fed on scraps as he had been all his life.
Chris
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