I recently read a wonderful article by Kathy Santo in the American Kennel Club’s magazine, Family Dog. The title was “Wheelchairs, Walkers, and More” and addressed how you can help your dog adapt when someone in your household has a disability. I was pleased to read how Ms. Santo stressed training to deal with the new situation, whether it meant new pieces of equipment in the house that your dog (or cat, for that matter) must now navigate around (wheelchairs, oxygen tanks, etc.) or strangers visiting to help care for the person with the disability. Imagine the fright your pet must feel as he sees his beloved companion surrounded by all kinds of terrifying machines, some of which make noises that would scare the spots off a leopard. Of course, with gentle training and caring, most pets will learn to adapt and will be as devoted as they ever have been. Possibly more, as I know my two wonderful border collies are infinitely more patient when I am under the weather. Although an errant ball thrown their way will distract them, most times when I am bedridden they lie patiently at my feet, warding away any evil spirits that may threaten me.

But let’s, for the moment, extend this situation to one where the pet actually loses his owner. Imagine yourself losing your spouse or parent. That’s what your faithful dog or cat will face. If they’re lucky they got to experience a gradual decline and can probably absorb the change over time. Probably—and here I’m assuming your pet is as aware as my two are. I think they are, but that’s a subject for another blog.

I imagine my poor pups devastated when I’m not around to throw a ball to them. Or take them to the dog park. Or rub their bellies. Sure, they’ll eventually get over it, just as we eventually get over the loss of our loved ones. But oh, the horror. Isn’t there something we can do? Isn’t there something we should do?

The short answer is “yes!”

First, and always first, love them now. Treat them the way you think you should treat anyone you love as dearly. And how you think you should treat anyone who loves you as much as they do.

Second, imagine you are your pet and all of a sudden are faced with the loss of your loved one. Close your eyes, take yourself out of the scene, reach out your paw, and find there’s no one there. And you have no idea of how or why this happened. Terrifying. Depressing, in fact.

Third, do something. That something is “create a plan.” If you have a will, write an additional paragraph telling your surviviors what they should do with your pet. Find someone who will agree to take in that sweet, wonderful pup (or that ornery old curmudgeon of a cat). The alternative is not so great for unless you make plans for him, he may wind up in a shelter.

Fourth, after you find someone who will take your pet in after you’re gone, be sure you specify that in your will. Or  if not in writing in a will, at least make it known to your other heirs. Tell your daughter or son that you’ve made arrangements.

And fifth, in addition to putting all of this in writing in a will, make sure you also include some money to take care of your pet. It doesn’t have to be much. But certainly enough for a year’s care (preferably enough for your pet’s life expectancy). That’s the least you can do.

Hopefully I’ll outlive my two dogs. That’s the natural order. But if I don’t, I sure don’t want them to suffer. It doesn’t take much. It just means thinking of their needs and what you can do to ensure that the loss they experience isn’t made much, much worse simply because you didn’t take the time to plan for them.

Give the baby boomers some credit for this latest wave of stock market upsurge. Yeah, I know that sounds just like a boomer – arrogant and self-absorbed. But listen to my reasoning and then decide whether I’m right.

Boomers are obviously older than all but the oldest in our population. That generally results in a bit more job security because they have seniority. And, indeed, the numbers confirm that. The unemployment rate for those over 50 is considerably lower than for those under 50. The unemployment rate for 55 to 64-year olds is about 5.5%, considerably less than the overall number which is 7.7% (the rate for 45- to 54-year olds is about 6%). So what does that mean and how does that translate into a bull market?

Simply put, the baby boomers are not hurt as badly by the recession as are the rest of the population. They (we) don’t feel as negative and probably have greater optimism. Why?

For one, we’ve been through a number of downturns and have seen upswings that followed. The sky didn’t fall and we are now better off than we were a few years ago. We bought our houses longer ago than the others and even with the drop in the housing market, many of us still have some equity. In addition, we don’t tend to move as often as younger people so we probably didn’t have to sell at a loss.

Secondly, we have more money overall in our retirement accounts and other investments than do the young-uns. We don’t like seeing the returns of 1% or less that we get from CDs and other conservative investments. We are an antsy group and in this our arrogance helps us. We’re anxious to have our net worth be worthy of us!

Thirdly, we probably don’t have to plan for as many big expenses coming like college expenses for our kids. Most of this age group are already empty nesters or in the final years of paying the expenses for our kids. We’re seeing more of the light at the end of the fiscal tunnel now. We’re seeing that ahead lies our later years and we want to do what we can to be better off than it looked like we’d be. Sure many of our kids have rebounded and are staying with us. But we see that as temporary. And yes, we have other major expenses such as weddings and caring for our parents. But our kids are waiting longer to get married and the drain on us for caring for our parents is less about the financial difficulties than about the emotional strain, lack of time, complex insurance and legal concerns, and day-to-day caring concerns.

The result? We invest. We see a few hopeful signs and we move more of our money out of those safe investments into equities. We want to feel positive. We want there to be gains in stocks. As we learned long ago in our Econ 101 classes, that optimism drives the stock market higher.

So where does it go? Here’s what I think, to the extent that it matters. It goes up. Then down, then up again. It’s what the market does. In the short term we’ll see a bit more ride upwards. Then some folks will get scared or there’ll be some international news that causes jitters. Then we’ll get our perspective back and see another ride up. What we’ll experience is just like what we’ve experienced in the past. Only with more dollars and more people involved. That will cause even more volatility. But in the longer term, all that up and down will even off.

What we’ll also see is a slight decrease in the kinds of upswing returns since more of us, as we age, will heed the advice of good planners and will be more conservative with our investments. More of us will be working less or retired. More of us will be on fixed income. More of us will die.

But we won’t lose our optimism. We pronounced long ago that we changed the world and we still think we can. It’s all about us, right?