Good-bye Sadie, it's been nice

Ours is a dog-free home once again. I wonder how long I'll be able to handle it? At the moment, I'd claim FOREVER, but I thought the same thing after Brady-dog died and I lasted maybe 4 months.

Sadie isn't dead, her previous owners took her back following several weeks of completely unacceptable horrendous behavior. Sadie's always been a nervous whiner. She's always had separation anxiety and issues with the cats. She's always been nasty with other dogs and an occasional problem barker. Those were not deal breakers. Sadie was excellent with the kids and neighbor kids. She was a fun playmate and great to cuddle with.

For some unknown reason, in the past several weeks she stopped coming when called. She started TEARING out the front door every time ANYONE opened it. She was unstoppable. By the way she came slinking home in shame, it was obvious she knew she was doing wrong, but that didn't stop her from repeating her bad behavior 5 minutes later. First she was visiting the dog two houses down and barking through the fence. At some point she realized it was more fun to try to attack the next door neighbor dogs through their house. The final straw was when the neighbors called the police over the weekend and animal control paid us a visit. We don't know yet whether the neighbors actually filed a complaint, but if they did we'll have a $100 fine. A fine that would apparently increase with multiple offenses. I think pretty much the ONLY way to NOT have multiple offenses would have been to either keep the dog in a cage 24/7 or get rid of her.

This was beyond a training issue. Well, that's possibly not true. I imagine with a HUGE amount of time and effort she could have been trained. Meanwhile, we probably would have had hundreds of dollars in fines and would have been sued for damages to the neighbors' house. Sorry, doggy, not worth it!

So far the kids are taking it well. Logan was extremely offended by her running out so he's glad she's gone. Kaylin will likely have a much harder time because she really loved cuddling with her. I feel like a failure, but the past few weeks have been so stressful I'm also extremely relieved to have her gone.