As the title says- husband and I live in a vehicle with two dogs. I was called in to jury duty for an upcoming day that I *can* attend because my husband has the day off. That being said, our schedule is such that neither of us have an overlapping work time- one of us is always available to be with the dogs.

So the problem will arise if I am selected. I have a dog-aggressive dog and a friendly dog who I live with in this vehicle. They cannot be safely left alone. We do not have air conditioning to keep them comfortable in extreme temperatures so I will often drive around or go to higher elevation if it's very hot out. The jury duty is for the end of July.

I submitted a request to be excused because of this and it was denied. I'm not really sure what to do if I'm forced to go. I will not put my dogs at risk and I can't afford to board them, not to mention that one of them is dog-aggressive and will not be accepted at most boarding facilities. He would do extremely poorly in a kennel full of other dogs.

I know the government doesn't really care because dogs are "just dogs" but these are my children. They matter to me and there's not a chance in hell I'm going to be able to focus on a court case while I'm worried sick over my dogs boiling in a hot car because I can't be there to take care of them.

What should I do in this situation? Is there going to be an opportunity to explain to the judge why I genuinely can't go? And why have I (35) been called for jury duty FOUR TIMES and my 45 year old husband hasn't ever received a summons!?

EDIT:

So I requested to change the date of my jury duty to January. I'm hoping this will at least make things safer for my dogs. I had already requested to move the jury duty date to this day because my husband had the day off- I didn't think to check if I could move it to winter, which I feel really stupid about not realizing until now. I'm hoping they accept it.

Thank you everyone for your responses.

EDIT:
They accepted my request to move my date to January!! My husband is going to try to get some time off that week in case I'm selected. Thank you so much everyone!