Sandy

several days ago I brought another dog to the pound. we have had Sandy for almost 2 years. I love that darn dog. She has been a handful:
she killed some of our neighbors chickens and even got stuck in the Hardy's oldest son's chicken cooping killing his wive's baby chickens (all of them). Chuck nearly killed my dog for it (can't say I would have blamed him).
Sandy killed a cat in the lot next door to us while my 11 year old son was watching. he was traumatized and cried when he told me how awful it was to witness it. (hopefully it was a stray and not a pet of someone's).
Sandy kills birds, chickens, and cats. she's a dog. she does what dogs do.
She also is smart - she gets out of our yard. she can hop our block wall (that was never finished by those we hired to do it - loooong angry story - not going there.)
plus she pushes open our gate even when I tighten it up or find some kind of method to hopefully deter her effort, she pushes past pain and uses her teeth to pull things apart set up to protect her from getting out of the gate. She cannot be chained up, she has 3 broken collars and 2 broken chains. She also figured out how to get her collar off over her head.

So I decided I would be a great dog owner - train her, work with her, run with her, etc... I thought "maybe she does all this because she is bored?" so I kept her busy - nope. on the days I ran her the hardest and trained and work my butt off with her, she continued to escape.

Sandy is gentle to people. she loves kids and will lick them and cuddle them. She used to sleep with my 4 year old. She was raised with babies. in fact she is only a few months older than my youngest baby. She and he were raised together.

SO... I have put up with her doginess and have tried keeping her indoors and run with her when I take her out. BUT our neighborhood is full of 4 and 5 year old kids that feel free to walk in and out of our home and leave the doors open as well as the gates to the yard (not that the yard gates would matter anyway). I cannot keep my sandy safe from herself.

The other day after a crew of 4 and 5 year olds were running all over my home, there was a knock on my door. There were 3 kids ages 10-12 years old. I know these kids, they know me, they know my dogs. I will keep them nameless since some readers know who they are as well.

There was a girl with tears in her eyes and the leader of the bunch that knows my family best was talking to me. "Sister Ennis, you have got to do something about your dog Sandy. She just killed _________'s pet rabbit while she was playing with it in her front yard."

I was devastated!

This was new. Sandy had never killed an animal while a child was playing with it. she had never even taken a piece of food out of my baby's hand. I had trained her to have self control when a child was holding a hot dog or piece of chicken. Sandy would sit and wait and wimper sometimes. But she would never take something away from a kid. I was crushed!
Sandy went to the pound that day - immediately.
I took my kids with me so they could say good-bye to her. Evan, Gabe and Ilia cried all the way home. Dane was 4 and didn't understand that Sandy was gone for good. He kept saying "is she at a babysitters and we get her tomorrow?" "Sandy will be home tomorrow right mom?" - this was his best buddy that he cuddled with at night. I had taken her away and I was crushed.

I went to the neighbor's house the next day to apologize and tell them I took care of my dog and see if they wanted a replacement bunny.
as I spoke to the mother - the real story emerged...

the little bunny had escaped from it's cage and was in the empty lot next door to us. Sandy and my other dog, Tottie (who does NOT kill rabbits and chickens)had been let out of my home by this family's little boy when he came over and let himself into my home.

so the dog killed the bunny - not right out of the kids hands, but in the lot next door. she again, was just being a dog, not the viscous animal these kids made her out to be. She did not take a bunny out of a girl's hands. the girl was not even near the bunny.
when I told the mother the story, she looked at her daughter and said "could you tell her what really happened please?" the daughter was swallowing hard and trying to explain a little better. "well... it wasn't exactly like that... but she did kill my bunny... not in our yard I guess..."
I asked the mom if she wanted a replacement bunny and the mother said "Please no!"

I am torn up about bringing my dog to the pound. that was not the place for a dog like Sandy. (although I am sure there are a few chicken owning neighbors that will strongly disagree with me)

HOWEVER - we are now down to one dog, and I love it! It is so much easier to have one dog that adores us. He sleeps with Evan and is a lot more obedient now that he is not trying to escape with his friend. now when he escapes, he sits by the house rather than wander the neighborhood with Sandy.

I miss Sandy. I am angry that I got rid of her because some kids decided to over exaggerate the truth and guilt me into getting rid of a dog that was just a dog doing what most dogs do.

BUT I would not get rid of one of my kids for screaming at me and disobeying, lying to me and being a rotten child (we'll wait til they are 14 ish and they have a program for them) just kidding - sort of. No, really, we have some serious struggles with kids at times but they are ours and we love them.

Dogs are similar. we struggle sometimes in training our dogs and getting them to be the kind of pet we want them to be. The difference is - they are dogs, not humans. so we give up faster. we decide that since they are not a child in our family it is fine to be done with them when they are too much stress. we can't choose that with kids without having the law step in and handle things.

I feel so guilty about Sandy. but because I am really enjoying being a one dog home, I am not going to go back to the pound and get her out. I hope someone with a secure yard gets her.

she was a great friend to me and my kids.