This one is hard to write. We had to adopt out our family dog of almost 7 years.
Jake became part of the Archuleta circus when we lived on the farm in Weiser. She roamed the countryside for the first two years of her life. (Yes, HER name is Jake. It's weird, whatever.)
Our life in the city for the past 5 years has been a stretch for her country girl ways. We would frequently have to address fencing issues after coming home to yet another escape.
When this all got too overwhelming for us- still trying to recover from the months of unemployment, moving into the new house, the boys getting back into sports, & her looking at me with those sad, sad eyes... we had to accept we were not the pet owners we wanted to be.
The idea of losing a her sent the whole family into a panic. Devastating to a few family members.
But Jake had a happy ending. And that makes us happy, too. She was adopted by the most perfect couple. Their dogs are their kids. They live in the country and have a dog pool. And! They have welcomed our family to come visit Jake whenever.
I swear she was smiling when they drove off. She will have the country life she loves and another dog to grow old with.
So much that I could say about this experience. So much I learned from that sweet mutt. This was not our plan, and letting go of our plan was difficult. Letting go is hard but sometimes holding on is harder, or like this quote I found on Oprah.com:
"Holding on is believing that there's only a past; letting go is knowing that there's a future."-Daphne Rose Kingma
So sad that you had to let Jake go. I am sure that she will be happy out in the country. I bet the boys were sad to lose her as well.
ReplyDeleteI must be hormonal still...I am telling those tears not to come. At least she isn't dead- that's really what I thought the post was going to be about...so was thrilled to learn that not only is she alive, she gets to go play wildly.
ReplyDeleteYou're the best kind of pet owner I know, listening to those sad, sad eyes. Good job, mama.
Bitter sweet for sure :) So surprised/relieved you found an awesome home for Jake at her age...what a blessing!
ReplyDeleteSounds like you truly were good pet owners when you recognized the city wasn't for her, yet I know letting go of a loved one is one of life's most difficult challenges...
Thank you ladies for your sweet words of encouragement. This has been tough and we got some flack from our adoption ad, about being terrible people for not making time for the dog. So, I was nervous to post about it at all. Thanks for being my cyber support team!!
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