Bye Bye Sup

 Just yesterday, we got rid of our dog.  We ended up having him for a total of 3 1/2 months.  At first, I didn't like him, but that was going to be a given- I never wanted to get a dog and have been fighting it for years.  Once we got the dog, it was a lot of work, just like I explained to Joe that it would be.  After about 6 weeks, Joe was ready to get rid of the dog, but Adam's best friend moved about then, so we thought it would be too hard on him to have both things happen at the same time.  Plus Joe thought we needed to keep Sup for a full two months to see if things got better the longer we had him.  Things did get better the longer we had him.  By the time we got rid of him, he was pretty well potty trained in the house.  He understood some basic commands like- out and down.  He just had a lot of energy and when the kids were around he was super energetic- so much so that many times when the kids were inside, we had to put him outside, and when the kids were outside, we would bring him in.  Finally, about 3 weeks ago, Joe decided that he was DONE, he really just didn't want the dog anymore.  We had another family vote at dinner.  This time me, Joe and Nate were still wanting to get rid of the dog, and Ellie and Michael were ambivalent.  Adam didn't want to get rid of the dog, but he was hedging a little.  He wanted to make sure if we did get rid of him, that he would go to a good home.  Joe immediately started looking for a new home for Sup.  A few days later, Joe's sister Jayne said she would take the dog...we just had to convince Adam that he would be okay getting rid of him.  Joe went out to ice cream with Adam and asked him about it, saying that Jayne would take the dog.  He explained what a good life Jayne's family would give it- they have acreage, they like animals, they have another dog and they have two kids.  Adam could see that he was going to have a good situation, so he concurred it was okay to get rid of the dog.  Since then, the kids have rarely played with the dog.  A week ago, we went to our property and asked them if they wanted to take the dog with us (ideal place to have the dog-he could run and play and not be in anyone's way.)  They all opted to not take the dog.  That was a good sign to us that no one really would be heartbroken if we got rid of the dog. 

Yesterday, we took Sup to the airport and he got to fly to live in Vermont with Aunt Jayne.  He made it okay, and already seems to be adjusting well to his new family.  Were there any tears or even comments here about the dog being gone?  No, not one.  The only comment is from me- its a lot quieter around here and I have to sweep the kitchen more, but it is a lot less responsibility so I feel lighter.

Anyway, in preparation, for FHE last week, we tried to take pictures with the kids individually with the dog.  Problem was, Sup thought it was play time.  So here are the best we got:

 When I held him, he wanted most to just bite me:

 The next three pictures completely demonstrate the dynamics between Nate and Sup. 

 Sup could exert dominance over Nate, so he was always jumping on Nate and biting his clothes.  Nate does not have any t-shirts without holes in them from Suppy.  I keep finding more at garage sales, but those get holes in them too.  Nate, however, would see Sup and go up and karate chop him or kick at him, so it was definitely a mutual-picking on. 

There are some good things that happened in this situation.  First, and most important, Joe admitted I was right and he was wrong.  I have been allowed to say, "I told you so," several times.  When he first said he was really ready to get rid of the dog, I suggested we keep him for another month so that he would beyond any doubt not want to get a dog again, but he let me know he was already at that point.  That is the other good thing that has happened, we have learned as a family that we are not dog people.  It was a lot of work trying to figure out what to do with the dog if we were going to be out all day on Saturday, with several different destinations.  It tethered us to home more than we wanted to be.  The kids didn't play with the dog very often, they usually wanted the dog to come inside so he wouldn't mess up their tunnels and mountains when they were digging in the sand box.  So, Sup is gone, we have learned a valuable lesson, and we can all move on from here.