Take Time For Save My Pet

You'll notice other TV critics are busy reviewing the first new episode of Mad Men.

I'd be doing the same except for a challenge by a 12-year old girl I recently met in the Toronto Central Reference Library.
"Why don't you ever review my favorite show?" she asked plaintively.
"And that show would be?" I innocently asked.
"Save My Pets," she said so here I go.
The second season of what may be the only pet TV series filmed in Newfoundland (by St. John's-based Best Boy Entertainment)  revs up Monday April 8 at 7 p.m. on Animal Planet.
Make that 6.30 p.m. in Newfoundland, of course.
This one is a real tear jerker about the amazing attempts by owners to save their pets in near death situations.
First up there's a salute to "Maggie". She was a badly neglected German shepherd who somehow tugged at the heart strings of twentysomething Ryan Hurley.
Sadly neglected and just skin and bones she was taken in by Hurley who nursed her back to full strength.
Like many German shepherds she needed double hip surgery to be able to walk again without pain. And Ryan nursed her through a long post operative period involved in building her strength back.
More tragedy strikes when Maggie is hit by a ski plough and must undergo surgery on three of her four legs.
First Maggie must be flown by air to a regional center where Ryan can drive the poor dog another 700 miles as an orthopedic team of specialists stands by.
We're never told the cost of all this but I'm reckoning most owners would surely elect to have the dog put down.
The real Ryan and his parents guide us through these adventures but it's strange that in the dramatic re-enactments they are played by actors who don't closely resemble them. And Maggie is played in these scenes by a canine actor who is a different color.
Of course I watched right to the happy ending. This is perfect fare for the entire family.
Next week two teenaged sisters buy a California king snake.  Then in episode three Sherlock, a pet dalmatian, is stricken by a serious kidney disease. Need I go on.
Yes, it is a canny blend of ER and Search For Tomorrow with animals in the leads.
And about Mad Men? I'll get to that one later but I did notice the absence of animals from all these swinging Sixties couples.
SAVE MY PET'S SECOND SEASON PREMIERES ON ANIMAL PLANET ON MONDAY APRIL 8.
MY RATING: ***.