A day I'd rather forget

Saturday was a very difficult day.

We had our dog Suzie for over 7 years. When got her from the Save a Dog Scheme she was already an adult and had been mistreated in her previous home. She was very underweight and didn't have any fur on her nose. She was very timid, would jump at anything and was particularly afraid of men. 

Suzie adjusted to life with our family quickly. Over the next 7 years she became outgoing, loyal and very animated. She has the most expressive face of any dog I have met. She has the most wonderful dog smile and she developed the funniest, quirky friendship with our other dog, Ted. She is loving, loyal and happy.

Whilst her temperament improved dramatically over her years with us, Suzie was still easily unnerved. She is afraid of the hot air balloons that fly over our house most mornings and is always rattled by storms. Her reaction in recent years to anything that unnerved her has been to jump the fence. If were home when she jumped we would let her straight back in. She didn't escape to run away, she would come straight around to the front gate. 

We are busy people, so often we have not been home when Suzie escaped. When no one was home to let her in, she would roam the streets. Recently, she has roamed further and further and has been crossing the freeway. 

We have tried everything we could possibly think of to keep her in. We have taken her to obedience classes, walked her regularly, given her toys and bones, she had another dog for company, we put fence toppers on the fence to add height and for a very short time we even tried a low voltage shock collar. None of these things worked.

It reached the point that the situation had become too dangerous. We did not want Suzie to be hit by a car, nor did we want some poor motorist to go through the awful experience of hitting her. Furthermore, given that we live on a main road and seconds off of a freeway, we had to face the reality the probability of her causing an accident that could not only kill her, but also harm or kill one or more people, was getting higher and higher. That is not something we could let happen. 

It had become clear that we could no longer meet Suzie's needs as her owners as well as honour our civic duty to the users of the roads surrounding our home.

Having to put Suzie up for adoption has been a truly heart breaking experience for the whole family. It took over a week from deciding it needed to happen, to actually doing it because we love her dearly and couldn't bring ourselves to go through with it.

On Saturday when I was at work on my tea break, I received a text message from my Mum asking me if I wanted to say a last goodbye. I replied that I didn't need to say goodbye and that I would be less traumatized if they went ahead and took her without me. In my mind, I had been saying goodbye to her everyday since the decision was made. I had seen her that morning and I could live with that as being our last contact. However, that didn't stop me crying through my tea break.

The people at the Save a Dog Scheme were fantastic. Because they run the pound for our local council they have met Suzie before on her escapades and were aware of our situation. I think they understood how awful we felt about having to give her up and Mum and Katie said they were very good about it all. The Save a Dog Scheme does not put dogs down unless they are too aggressive to be re-homed. They are positive about her prospects to find a new home and so am I. There is no way we could have parted with Suze unless we knew that she would not be put down.

From what Mum and Katie told me, the process of giving her up was far more traumatising for them than for Suze. Suzie was as happy as Larry. Thankfully, whilst I'm sure she loves us, she loves all people and never pined for us when we went away. As long as she is taken care of, she is happy.

I am trying to take comfort in knowing that we tried everything we could to keep Suzie safe, as well as giving her the best 7 years of her life thus far. It had just become a square peg, round hole scenario and we had to do this in order to protect her safety and the safety of local road users. I will try and remind myself of this every time I look out to the table on the deck and don't see her sitting on it. 

It is one thing to try and comprehend this as a human. Ted, now our only dog, does not understand at all why his best friend hasn't come home. He keeps searching the back yard for her. I really wish I could just sit him down and explain it to him. No doubt he will now be spoilt rotten out of our guilt and hopefully it won't take him too long to adjust. 

Goodbye lovely Suzle. We love you so much, we miss you and we trust you will be safe and loved in your new home.