Ok, so when I was thinking of getting a dog last summer, why on earth didn't anyone stop me?? I love Buster to death - he truly is a great dog. He doesn't have accidents in the house, he's great with the kids, and he doesn't bark or get into too many things. But at the end of the day, he's still a large dog. I am now in the middle of trying to convince the kids that we need to find him a better home. Of course, this is their first pet ever (besides a fish - does that really count?) and he's our only pet. Telling them that we should get rid of him is breaking their little hearts. The truth is though that with Andy leaving in the fall, I think I'm going to have my hands full enough with the 5 kids. I'm trying to think this through logically and make a decision here within the next couple of weeks on what to do....
The Pros to Keeping Buster:
1. the kids love him
2. he's a really good dog
3. it might be nice to have a dog in the house while Andy is gone (although he doesn't really bark when people come, so that might not be much of a help after all)
The Cons to Keeping Buster:
1. He has scratched all of our wood floors (although I guess he's already done that and it probably won't get any worse than it already is)
2. He has to be constantly inside (and I have found that I am definitely an OUTSIDE dog person) It annoys me to no end that he won't just go outside and hang out. He does his business and then he is scratching at the door again wanting to come in.
3. He likes to run away. we have had to go searching for him a number of times - and I have even had to pay a ticket when animal control found him.
4. He leaves huge amounts of doggie doo-doo in the backyard -and I have kids that want to play back there. With Andy gone, the job of cleaning it up will be left to me.
5. We can't give him the amount of exercise he needs. I am not going to be physically capable of taking him for walks around the neighborhood with 5 kids. Can you imagine that??
6. I can't leave the house for more than 6 hours at a time, because he has to be put in the kennel while we're gone. This can be really frustrating to me, because I don't like having to drive home specifically just to let him out. With another car seat in the car, I won't be able to take him for rides in our vehicle either (and he loves to go for rides).
7. The amount of dog hair in our house absolutely DISGUSTS me!! Like I said before, I guess I'm an outdoor dog person. I vacuum the floors every day and yet there is still hair everywhere! The thought of a new baby learning to crawl and being covered in dog hair is really gross to me. If I didn't have so many kids laying/playing on the floor this might not bug me so much, but they tend to do gymnastics, watch movies etc. on the floor.
8. Recently, he has been inhaling his dog food and water and then throwing it up. I had to clean it off of 8 stairs last week. Can I say YUCK loud enough?? I have enough bodily fluids to clean up without his to add to it :)
I really wish we lived somewhere where he could roam around more (and would relieve us the duty of keeping the yard so clean and taking him for walks.) I just don't want to break the kids hearts. I wish I had decided against a dog last summer. He was just so cute and the kids were so excited about him. Like I said, he's a great dog and I'm sure we'll be able to find him a good home - maybe where someone can take him for rides in their car and take him hunting (he catches birds mid-air).
So, looking at the list obviously the cons outweigh the pros. But, do the kids feelings count for more than all of my frustrations?? The kids are going to be heartbroken if we do end up finding him a new home :(
2 comments:
Wow, the cons do outweigh the pros.
I don't like cleaning up after dogs or cats. We are over run out here with everyone's "pets" so we don't have any nor want any. As you pointed out, if we had a pet and wanted to go out for a week-end or evening, the pet would have to be put in a kennel.Paying all the fees, medical care, yearly license, would also be too costly for us. You're right, pets tear up a home.
I remember 1 dog loved to chew up the kids toys and wedge them into the edge of the door. We couldn't get out of the house. Had to go around and pick up the pieces of plastic and the wedged toy. The dog thought it was great fun. He would go over to the meanest dog in town, walk between his legs, eat his food from his bowl, then both would stroll back to our yard and I couldn't let the children outside because the other dog was so mean.We gave our dog away to the owner of the meanest dog. He was still a happy carefree dog. just got a little fatter from being fed and probably eating from both bowls. lol Mom W.
Hmm... I understand your list. I would love to have more pets. But exactly because I have made lists like this before we never got any pets. Especially while Rob was still in the Army and we knew our living situations would change often. Well, our cat adopted us and that's how we ended up with her. She just decided to stay in our yard and not to leave again. So we took up that responsibilty. And pets are a HUGE responsibility. But I look at them as family members. And even though I could come up with pro and con lists about my kids some times *jk*, I NEVER would think about giving them away.
Good luck on your decision and I hope if you decide to give Buster away you will be able to find a good home or at least will be able to put him in a no-kill shelter.
Birgit
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