Every morning I see this little face. She looks so innocent, right?

My dog Maive can escape from any crate, collar or harness. She can effortlessly scale any fence. She will shred books, clothes, and rugs if she’s mad. She bravely bullies dogs five times her size. Calling her high maintenance is an understatement.

When I had my “Torch Talk” with my sister I suggested that maybe someone other than her should take Maive if something ever happened to me. At first, she was very offended. “What? You don’t want me to take care of your dog for you? I will take care of her.” But after I reminded her of how hard Maive is to handle, she quickly agreed.

Are you one of the 68% of U.S. households who own a pet?

If you love your dogs, cats, fish, birds, rodents, reptiles and horses like members of your family ask yourself…if something happened to you, what happens to them?

Be honest, do you have a plan?

If your animals are very complicated, costly or valuable you should put your wishes in writing and speak to an estate planning professional. You can also name pet guardians and allocate funds by creating a Protection Agreement using LegalZoom for $39.

In most cases simple instructions and a conversation will do. If the pets in your family are high maintenance like the pets in mine, be sure to include:

All kidding aside, your furry friend needs a plan!

The checklist in the Torch pet notebook covers important contacts, recurring expenses, ownership documents and feeding/care instructions. It takes less than 10 minutes to create a notebook for each of your pets.

You have all the information about your loyal companions in your head and in a few minutes you can ensure someone else has it at their fingertips.