This is a photo which has been haunting me since yesterday.

It was taken by someone in the area in a hot grocery store parking lot while waiting for police to respond. Photo was taken in a public parking lot.

Look at that little face. Left in a parked car in the heat.

This little dog was left in a car when the outside temperature was still 88° according to one Good Samaritan's cell phone.

Eighty-eight degrees.

There was NO air conditioning turned on, car was not running, windows were cracked.

That is NOT sufficient in the heat. You can't just crack the windows and leave.

I do NOT understand how local police can bend over backwards with safe summer tips for human beings large and small and pets in cars, as well as all the media releases which occur similarly, and finally the tragic media reports we hear EVERY year of small children and pets left in hot cars in the summer and we still see things like this?

I do not know the outcome here, police responded within a couple of minutes I am told. Which makes me hopeful everything turned out O.K. Please….don't be afraid to call police when you see something like this- better safe than sorry.

Please do not leave your pets and humans unattended in hot cars in the summer. Unless the only thing you want to have is the memory of a little face staring back at you like this…from a photograph.

Our pets in particular offer us the great gift of unconditional love. Please honor that love.