Chance

It's through tears and heartbreak that I announce that we had to say goodbye to our family dog this morning. 

Brad and I adopted Chance when he was 8 weeks old, in our first year of marriage. He was our "baby" before we had babies, our big happy go lucky stupid dog that liked to take off running (and thus making us chase him) whenever the back gate was accidentally left open, jumped up on the counters to eat the kids not-finished lunch, happily leaping all over whatever victim just knocked on the door, etc. Think Marley And Me on a smaller scale, that was Chance. 

But we loved him. 

Our Chance, when we brought him home. 2007

He was perfectly healthy and everything was fine, until about two years ago, when he started growling at Calen. Our kids have been trained very well to be extremely gentle, soft and calm with the dogs, so we were confused. We took him to the vet to see if he was sick or hurt, but he wasn't. The vet determined that the only thing that could cause this aggression was him ultimately being jealous of the kids, or thinking that they are a threat to me (Chance was essentially MY dog and was very VERY emotionally attached to me). We tried retraining, exercise, Calen being an active part in Chance's life (feeding him and letting him in/out the back door), but it never got better. In fact, it got worse. Chance would growl if Calen not only touched him, but walked near him, and sometimes even when he would try to pet our other dog Juno. The only decision was to remove him from our home, to prevent anything escalating that might cause some serious harm to one or both kids. 

But after well over a year of trying to rehome him, or put him in a rescue, in state, out of state, anywhere, everywhere, our attempts failed. No one would take a dog with aggressive tendencies. He was growling at Calen every day now and Camden is getting to the age where he wants to pet the dogs too. The executive decision from both Brad and I was to peacefully put Chance to sleep. This morning, we said goodbye after 6.5 years of being in our family. 

Brad and I are deeply grief-stricken and devastated. It wasn't as simple as putting down and old dog that was at the end of his life anyways. It was ultimately deciding to kill our dog, and I can't explain to you how much it hurts to the absolute core. The tears keep flowing even though it's been several hours. Our house feels empty, Juno keeps looking to the front door to see if her adopted brother is coming back, it's just awful. Even though friends, family, even the vet told us it was the right thing to do, if felt wrong. But what we had to remember was that it was protecting our kids.

So rest in peace, my dear Chance. We will miss you. I'm sorry that it had to be this way. 

Please, I could do without any "you should have done this instead..." or any other such "advice". We tried everything. We did everything. We already feel absolutely racked over the decision and the loss. Your judgement won't help us. But your prayers and thoughts for healing of our family will. 

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