Dear God…Sometimes Life Just Kinda Stinks

Today was one of those days, and no, this is NOT an April Fool’s Day joke.

We’ve been dealing with anger issues with Motzy lately.  He would do really well…and then suddenly snarl at one of us.

We tried everything…reprimanding him, putting him in his kennel for a timeout, and anything else you can imagine.   We even had our own private Veterinary advisor Jen – the daycare baby’s Mom.  She talked us through many ideas for training and disciplining him.

But today we had to say goodbye.

He went after Gabi last Thursday night when she was doing nothing more than snuggling with him – like they had every night for the past 7 months.  He left 8 indents on her hands along with a couple scrapes.  He didn’t break skin, but she froze in fear.  Motzy was immediately put in his kennel where we didn’t hear a peep from him until morning.

Today he went after me twice.  This morning leaving a few teeth indents on my hand and this afternoon I was saved by his cone.  He has snarled at us before and had attempted to bite but hadn’t connected.  We had him neutered on Friday with the hope that it might help things.  Unfortunately it didn’t, he actually was worse.

We had to make the decision today, and even though we knew we absolutely couldn’t have a dog that snapped at any of us or the two little daycare babies, it was still hard to say goodbye.  He was the sweetest dog 95% of the time.  But we couldn’t take a chance on the other 5%, especially with his episodes escalating.

I told Gabi before we left that maybe this was just all part of God’s plan.  Maybe Motzy has a wonderful new home to go to where he’ll be able to do all the things English Setters are supposed to do – go bird hunting and get lots of exercise each day.   Maybe that owner wouldn’t have been able to take him when he was a pup.  Maybe we were supposed to give him lots of love for 7 months so that he could eventually meet up with his permanent owner.

For now Jen was able to find a foster home.  She’s hoping to find him a permanent home soon.  I imagine a farm where maybe he could live in a barn and run free.

But for today, we kissed him goodbye and told him how much we loved him.  He’s spending the night at the Vet Clinic awaiting his ride.

Whatever God’s plan may be for Motzy, or for us…

Sometimes life just kinda stinks.

Patty O