This story from FB, with amazing (and rather scary) photos shows a small pup whose coat was allowed to grow, by a neglectful owner:

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/na...FlowFB_DCBrand

And it got me to thinking - when do you step in and say something about somebody else's pet? For instance, we have a neighbour whose elderly cat had long, thick fur, which was very lumpy and matted. When I'd touch the cat, I would mostly feel bulbous lumps under the over-coat, not a smooth surface. The cat was very shy, though, and I rarely got close to it. The cat was otherwise well treated, and the neighbours are friendly, nice, normal people, not strange in any way. I never said anything about it, but yesterday I heard that they had had to put the cat down due to an adder bite. It sounded as if they hadn't noticed the swelling and discolouring, because of all the fur in the way...

And now I feel bad that I didn't say something. We have a smooth-coated cat who is very fastidious, and she would have been very distressed at lumps in her coat. But I just sort of assumed that this cat didn't mind as much :-(

It would have been a lot easier if they had been neglectful in any other way, but it's hard to call out people just for being thoughtless.