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Fred and Snoopy Reunite

I may possibly go to hell for being the worst mother on Earth.

Fred came home with us last night. I have absolutely nothing against him. He is a really great dog...just not for this family. I am thinking a Beagle isn't quite what we had in mind. According to all of my research yesterday, they have a one track nose. When this happens their brains shut completely down. We were outside no less than five times in the course of three hours. We even took him for what is probably the longest walk (actually he kind of dragged us) of his whole three year life and he was calm for about an hour and then was up and going again. Fred has a slight weight issue so we thought he was going to drop at any moment he panted so much. This was also the sniffingest and peeingest dog I ever met. He also did not come when called, or sit down when told, or seem to know what the hell we were saying to him. I understood why Fred was like this a little more when I learned that in Fred's home English may not have been his first language. Poor Fred didn't know what the hell we wanted. He didn't even really respond to his name being called, or whistling, or patting of the knees and urging him to follow us. This wore me out quickly.

The inability to leave Fred for any period of time also became completely absorbed by my brain about an hour after he arrived. This means no weekending, no vacation, no Sunday drives, no anything. We could not leave Fred in our new and strange house. Judging by his temperament that meant never. I fully believe he could probably destroy a house in less than an hour should he choose to get too bored.

There was also one other huge issue with keeping Fred. It seems that he has another Beagle buddy back home named Snoopy. He also was fed from the family's dinner and preferred the couch or bed to the floor or his sleeping pillow. I am a horrible mean person for saying this...but I am just not very cool with that. I liked the snuggly part of him sitting on my lap on the couch but I was not very thrilled at the thought of his nails ripping the upholstery (yes even that damned cursed couch) or brand new purple velvet comforters. In fact, I just sucked up enough dog hair in my vacuum to make some poor bald man a thick salt and pepper dog hair wig. Ew. I just grossed myself out. Anyway...

Fred woke up at 2:30 a.m. and growled at Logan from the floor in front of his bed. Logan, of course, was terrified to get up. Fred whined and paced so Logan screamed for me to come help him. I got up, went down, let Fred out of Logan's room thinking maybe he needed a drink or something. Fred wanted to play. He was all excited. Then Fred got so excited that he peed on the floor in the living room. Peed. At 2:30 in the morning. I was completely enraged for about three seconds then I just told Fred what a bad thing that was and took him down to the end of the street to pee again. Then I came back in and cleaned up the mess and, being my normal freaky self, could not just clean it up, I had to shampoo the carpet.

So at 3:00 this morning I was shampooing any and all traces of Fred pee out of the carpet. I am sure my neighbors love me. Logan was trying to help and I appreciated it but I was in a very bad mood. Fred knew he was in trouble so he tried to hide under the table and then under Logan's bed. I pulled Fred by the collar back to his sleeping pillow and told him to "Stay" in a tone that is usually reserved for when the children have just gotten on my last nerve and "heads are about to roll". Fred didn't move. I instructed Logan to watch "his dog" until he went to sleep. Hid did. I huffed up the stairs and had a good tearful rant at a very tired Monkey about just how not ready I am for this.

All of the kids tried really hard not to be afraid of Fred. It was obvious to all of us that they all were extremely freaked out everytime he came near them. Even Logan. He wants a dog so much yet he is still so nervous around them. I just don't know what to do with him.

So this morning we all had a long talk about Fred. We let Logan make the final decision about taking Fred back to his home, which he did only because he knew Terry and I were really not clicking with Fred (or the idea of Fred) as much as we had hoped we would. He was destroyed emotionally. He has cried all day. He keeps trying to be okay but he isn't. As much as he knows that Fred wasn't "the dog" for him, it was a dog. The closest he has been to his dream of having one. He wasn't really understanding what "trial run" meant. I think he just thought that we would all live happily ever after. I am so sad for him about the whole thing. I feel like it is mostly me that couldn't deal with it though I know that the not going anywhere would quickly become an issue with Terry. However, Logan doesn't hear any of it. All he hears is he couldn't keep his dog. I feel like total and complete shit.

However, we called Fred's house to let them know we weren't going to be able to keep him and the lady informed us that Fred's Beagle buddy Snoopy had also been up at 3 a.m. looking for Fred and whining and being generally unhappy. So, that makes me feel a bit better. Fred did whine at the window a little so I think he was wanting to go home. So upon hearing that they both acted this way the lady stated that it was probably going to have to work out that they either keep both Fred and Snoopy or that they will have to both be given to the same family. That made the whole thing a little easier. I still feel like a shitty mom though.

Terry said that Fred acted totally different when he arrived home. He was so much happier and was like a totally different dog. He knew where he was before he ever got out of the van and his whole body language and the way he was acting was as if he was very thankful to be back home where he belonged. I sure do hope that if they give Fred away again that they send Snoopy with him. I really hope they change their minds and just keep them. I hate to think of how traumatized the poor things are when they are just sent away.

I told Logan that we would work on it. I don't know how soon it will be but we will get him a dog. I will have to figure out how to deal with it I guess. I can't stand to see his heart so broken.

Posted by gwendolyn on October 11, 2003 at 07:29 PM