The current economic scenario is creating cause to worry for most of us–but we humans aren’t the only ones facing crisis. Many pets are at risk when homeowners are forced to relocate due to change in employment or foreclosure, or when their owners can no longer afford to care for them.

According to USA Today, shelters that are experiencing an increase in pet intakes are almost without exception in areas where the foreclosure rate is high. And there’s growing concern that another, perhaps bigger wave of pet surrenders is in the offing, the result of the worsening economy and growing joblessness that will affect additional homeowners as well as renters.

It’s absolutely heartbreaking to think of losing your companion animal along with your job or house, below are

By Annie B. Bond, Care2 Executive Editor

If we want water coming in our taps to be clean, we need to make sure that which goes down our drains is clean.

Here are ways you might be polluting the water from your drain that you might not have thought about:

2. Hand dish detergent with artificial scents and dyes.

3. Automatic dish detergents that contain phosphates.

4. Hair dyes.

5. Solvents from washing paint brushes, rags with furniture polish, etc.

6. Hormones coming from the urine of women who are on birth control pills.

7. Toxic cleaning product residues from everything from bathtub and shower stall cleaners, to sponges rinsed after use on oven cleaner.

8. Toxic dyes from fabrics that "bleed."

9. Pesticides from washing plants that have been sprayed....