Depending on the kindness of strangers is a gamble in this cruel world. Sometimes, the person is not kind. Sometimes the person cannot or will not offer up kindness. Sometimes, the person comes too late.

In the case reported by AP, the strangers came too late to save the most innocent of victims: the family dog. Evelyn Nieves wrote that before leaving their one-time home, the former owners had trashed their house — ripped up the floors, busted the walls and smashed the lights. When the clean-up crew came in, the pit bull had already starved to death — alive, but too far gone to save.

And even if the workers had wanted to save the animal, these people only have so much room and so much money. Animals are being dumped near farms and other places where their owners hope they will survive. They are being left at homes for clean-up crews, real estate brokers, and property inspectors to find — tied to trees in the backyard, confined in garages, and left in the children's room. These animals are left by their former owners to become someone else's problem.

Other owners face the facts and take them to animal shelters. According to the same article, the San Joaquin Animal Shelter in Stockton is receiving many desperate calls from owners who are being evicted. This is, of course, not only a California problem. It is a national problem.

The Chicago Tribune staff writer Mary Umberger reported how two dogs, a black Labrador retriever and a shiba inu, ended up at the Naperville Area Humane Society. These dogs are the lucky ones. Even if they aren't adopted, they will be well-fed and humanely euthanized.

The problem isn't new; it's just the incidents have increased in relation to the rate of foreclosure around the country. The Chicago-based Animal Welfare League spokeperson, Terri Sparks told the Tribune, "It's probably increased a lot in the past six to seven months."

A few pets trickling in is one thing, but what if the losses are more large-scale? Three dogs and 20 birds in Ohio, 24 horses in Oklahoma, 63 cats in Cincinnati or 21 dead Great Danes in Pennsylvannia?