Who Will Care When You're Not There?

ROCHESTER HILLS (WWJ) - Do you know what will happen to your pet if you die? 

Many remember the jokes about Leona Helmsley when she left $12 million to her pet poodle, but attorney Robert Kass says it's no laughing matter. 

"There was a man who left $5,000 to his nephew to take care of his cat and the man passed away and the [nephew] came to the executor and asked for the $5,000 and the executor said, 'Where's the cat?'  He said, 'I took care of it.'  And he had it euthanized'" Kass said.

Kass said you can't just assume someone will care for your pet and a recent talk he gave drove home the point. 

"A lot of people came up to us and talked about it and said, 'Oh, my kids will take care of the dog,'  In some cases, the kids were standing right there with them and said, 'Mom, we're not going to take care of that dog!'  So even within families, people assume things are going to happen... and really it's better to talk to folks about it," he said.

Kass and Elizabeth Carrie have written a book called "Who Will Care When You're Not There?" 

They're holding two talks on estate planning for pet owners this week.  The talks take place from  4 to 5 p.m. and 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 12th at Leader Dogs for the Blind, 1039 S. Rochester Road, Rochester Hills, MI 48307.

You can register by logging on to http://leaderdog.org/news/calendar.php.