Santa’s reindeer cleared for takeoff for Christmas 2020 by AVMA president

Santa’s reindeer have been okayed for flight on Christmas 2020.

Santa’s reindeer have been cleared for takeoff on Christmas 2020 by the AVMA president last week.

Dr. Douglas Kratt, president of the American Veterinary Medical Association and thus designated as “the official veterinarian of the North Pole,” did his annual checkup of Santa Claus’ flying caribou herd last week, giving them the all-clear to take part in their annual trek around the globe spreading Christmas cheer and giving out presents to children.

The roster of Santa’s reindeer flying team consists of Dasher and Dancer, Prancer and Vixen, Comet and Cupid and Donner and Blitzen, and then of course Comet’s famous son Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.

Both Dr. Kratt and Santa took part COVID tests before and after the checkup for safety’s sake, and the health of Santa’s reindeer has been checked on via telemedicine options for most of this year.

Unfortunately, Dr. Kratt does not seem to be related to the Kratt Brothers, Chris and Martin, American-Canadian TV personalities who have been involved in PBS shows for the past three decades, including Kratt’s Creatures, Zaboomafoo and Wild Kratts, as they grew up in New Jersey and according to Dr. Kratt’s bio on the AVMA website, he is from Wisconsin.

And for those who are wondering if it’s safe for Santa to be traveling this year, that should be okay as well.

During a recent town hall meeting with Sesame Street and CNN, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the Director of the National Institute for Allergies and Infectious Diseases, explaining to worried children that he went “up there to the North Pole and I vaccinated Santa Claus myself, I measured his level of immunity [to COVID] and he is good to go!”

While of course all this is not strictly true, just as it’s physically impossible for all of our Dog Twitter friends to be able to read and talk, in another sense it is absolutely true, of the same unshakable granite that make up fairy tales. (For more on this subject, read the 1897 “Yes, Virginia” letter from the New York Sun, GK Chesterton’s essay “The Ethics of Elfland” from his 1908 book Orthodoxy, or novelist Philip Gulley’s essay “Zipper” from his 2007 nonfiction book Porch Talk.)

Since dogs are almost always very good boys and girls, they know that Santa Claus is not a threat or an intruder, and so will gladly welcome him into the house, and Santa’s reindeer are of course not to be barked at.

Have a great Christmas 2020, everypawdy!