The piece revisits a controversial analogy comparing Friday deploy freezes to "murdering puppies," something the author acknowledges makes them sound extreme. They clarify that they don’t advocate for eliminating deploy freezes entirely, recognizing that not all teams have the systems in place to deploy safely and confidently. The author cites a LinkedIn discussion where industry professionals shared insights and experiences on managing code freezes during the holiday season, emphasizing the importance of understanding one's own system capabilities. The author proposes an alternative approach: freezing merges instead of deploys. This allows developers to continue working on features without the risk of creating a backlog of untested changes that could lead to chaos when the freeze ends. They stress that the objective should be to maintain a steady flow of development without introducing significant risk, and that teams should regularly run their deployment processes even if they aren't pushing new code. This mitigates the risk of instability from prolonged inactivity. In closing, the author lightens the tone by wishing readers a peaceful holiday and humorously addresses the title's hyperbole. They share a personal touch, reminding the audience of their rural upbringing and their affection for their pets, reinforcing that the provocative title was meant to capture attention, not to reflect their true beliefs.