WHAT will you be doing on Christmas Day? Opening your presents; eating a huge lunch; falling asleep in front of the Queen? Or working as normal?

Well, for the 12th Christmas in 17 years of married life, I will be working, helping my staff to care for the cast-offs of Christmas.

All those cute little puppies and kittens from the summer which have now grown too big and too boisterous. All those dogs and cats which have lived blameless lives for years but have now found themselves part of the pre-Christmas clear-out.

On Christmas Day our shelter will be home to more than 70 dogs and cats. All will need to be fed, played with, cleaned out and cared for, whatever the day, whatever the weather.

In the lead-up to Christmas, spare a thought for the pets in your family. Very often we have an influx before the festive season - not after, as you might think.

With excited children, a busy mum and a grumpy dad (I know - I am one); with friends and family expected and the decorations up, it is too frequently that the pet becomes a nuisance. The result is that animal shelters are full at Christmas.

Before Christmas our re-homings all but stop. Christmas is not a time to introduce a new pet into the household. With so much going on, with so much excitement, settling a new dog or a new cat into the home is almost impossible, and not something we would recommend you try. This is particularly the case with rescue animals, which need special attention.

Obviously we would never suggest pets as presents - that's where many of our cast-offs come from in the first place. Fortunately, unwanted Christmas presents do not flood us in the New Year as they used to, but it still happens.

In the lead-up to Christmas, there are still people looking for kittens or puppies for their children as presents. Don't do it. Think about it long and hard and realise that shelters are full of pets who were loved once but outgrew their attraction.

A pet is not a plaything, to be taken on and discarded like a Barbie or a PlayStation. My eldest daughter is ten. If I bought her a kitten for Christmas, I could be a grandfather by the time it passes on. What a lot of changes might take place in our lives in that time.

And so, on Christmas Day, there we will be, looking after the friends of man who were just unlucky to have the wrong friends.

We spend our year trying hard to match the right pet with the right home. Our job is all about taking unwanted and abandoned pets in, trying to rehabilitate them, and then finding a home where their problems can be treated. It is never easy, and is sometimes heartbreaking. Mostly we succeed, but sometimes we fail, and when we fail we are failing an animal who has already been let down by a human, which makes it all the harder. This year has been a long one, with its normal successes and failures. We keep on going, helped by the good wishes of our friends and in the knowledge that the job we do is needed - however much we might wish it weren't.

Spare a thought for your pets at Christmas, for they really are the lucky ones.