Would you — as my parents did as I was entering college — hand over a piece of plastic bewitched with enchantments and say, “Now, this is only for emergencies?” Do you think it would help your dog develop a sense of financial responsibility?

You might think it’s a good idea — every dog should know how to handle his money, and should anything happen, you’ll know he’ll always be able to buy himself groceries — but once you start finding weird things on your credit card statment like, oh, “Tennis Balls Unlimited” and subscriptions to newspapers in languages your dog doesn’t even speak, you might think again. Two trips to Vegas and one stretch Escalade rental later, I’m still paying off the extravagances of my youth.

But there’s a solution to this — and it’s perhaps the solution my parents should have thought of. Why not get your dog a plush credit card, like one of these we found at PupRWear?

Then they can use it to buy a Pawda bag to carry their small dogs. (Very meta, right?)

An iPaw’d to keep up to date with their dog friends on Arfbook.

And a Furcedes for transportation.

Better yet, maybe we should just stick to a well-slobbered tennis ball. Or better yet, a nice, thick stick. (But if you would like any one of these silly toys, you can buy them here.)

Photo: Black labrador puppy lying on a pile of money by Shutterstock.com

Images via PupRWear