It's So Hard to Say Goodbye

Before I get to the sad part of this entry, I need to take care of a little business here. Due to the fact that I'm DROWNING in comment love this week (thanks so much you sweet readers!), I wanted to answer one of the hottest questions that I've gotten in the last 24 hours.

The book that I read was "Bitter is the New Black" by Jen Lancaster. And I loved it. More on why I loved it when I post my Spot's Sunday Entertainment Roundup this Sunday. In the meantime, here's the scoop on my depressing day today.


I have been a lover of German Shepherd Dogs (GSD's) for as long as I can remember. I had one as a very small child and then hubby & I obtained a puppy the DAY after we moved into our first house. (The house just wasn't home until we had a GSD pup running around ruling the roost) We added another GSD a couple of years later that we rescued and we had a Boxer as well. It was a huge & happy family. And then we added 2 kids of the human-kind and our house was really bursting at the seams. And then in the course of 13 months, we lost all 3 of our dogs to sudden illness. Just as it seemed that we were starting to feel normal again, another passed away, until we were dogless.


In April of this year, we decided to rush into getting another GSD into our home. Hubby could see how miserable I was without my GSD's and he just wasn't having it anymore. We ended up adopting a brother/sister pair from a local shelter. We kept Chloe and ended up adopting out her brother to a great home. The story of all that is here, if you're interested.


Everything was going along swimmingly until I left to go to Maine with my mom for a long weekend at the end of May. I got a frantic call from hubby on my 2nd day away saying that Chloe was growling at my kids. For no good reason. Thinking that it was probably because I was away and hubby was now home 24/7, I kind of dismissed it. That is until I got home and she started that behavior towards my kids while I was present.


So, for almost 2 months now, I've researched training methods, tried to talk with professionals and contacted multiple rescue organizations to try and fix this situation. The growling has now escalated to full on teeth baring and voracious barking anytime my kids come remotely near her. It has to stop.


With a VERY heavy heart and a lot of tears, I'm taking Chloe this morning to a brand new shelter that just opened up near my house. They have a behaviorist on staff and plenty of room to make sure that they find her the perfect home (with no small children). I feel so awful about this. I really feel like I've failed her as a dog-mom. I know many people don't have this kind of connection to animals, so I'm sure there are at least a few out there rolling their eyes and saying "good grief woman, get it together, it's JUST a dog". The problem is that I've never seen any of my pets as "just a dog". No matter how much they angered me or got under my skin for whatever reason, they were part of my family and I loved them.


So, be thinking of us today because although Chloe will no longer be in my home, she will always be in my heart.