Buckley

We had to do something terribly hard this week. We had to say good bye to our sweet dog, Buckley. It was a tough decision but we knew that it was for the best to find him a new home. 

We got Buckley from an organization that rescues dogs that are abandoned or abused and puts them in a foster home until someone wants to adopt them. It works out well because the dogs can be worked with and trained before being placed in permanent homes. In Buckley's case, it made a big difference for him.

He was rescued from a home where the wife decided to leave her husband who was gone driving truck for a few weeks. She left Buckley in the house alone and the man did not call the adoption organization until two weeks later. Buckley was left in the house for at least 2-3 weeks without food or the chance to go outside. Needless to say, when the volunteer got there to pick him up, she found squishy floors and a scared, shy young dog with a lot of energy mixed with anxiety. Over time, it became apparent that he had been abused as well. He was terrified of men and was especially uncomfortable if a man was wearing a baseball cap. 

He was in foster care for a few months before we got him. We knew his history, but he didn't seem to have any trouble warming up to us. In particular, he absolutely stuck by my side. It took him a while to warm up to hubby (man who wears a baseball cap), but he did eventually learn to trust him and never had a problem with him either. In fact, he absolutely adored hubby. He was a great fit for us.

Fast forward three years, and we have a much fuller house with two little girls and constant traffic with my piano students coming in and out. A few months ago, he did something that really scared me. I was in the kitchen making supper, Audrey strapped on with the Moby wrap, and heard Josie scream out. I ran to see what was wrong and found her standing in the hall way screaming with Buckley hovering in our room by the bed. My guess as to what happened is that she jumped on top of him when he was sleeping and he jumped up in fear, catching her arm with his mouth as a warning. It was obvious that he hadn't intended to bite her, but he did break her skin and we ended up bringing her in to get some antibiotics. It was traumatizing to me most of all. I was terrified of what this meant. 

After that, I watched Josie and Buckley extra close. It was so strange, though, because he didn't seem to be all that uncomfortable around her. Unfortunately, 1 1/2 year olds don't always learn from their mistakes, so she was still fairly aggressive with him and didn't always give him space. We worked on teaching her how to be gentle and loving to animals, but she is still so young. A similar situation happened a month or so later although this time her skin was just lightly scratched. We knew that he was warning her, not trying to hurt her, but it was not okay for him to react like that and we were starting to feel nervous about how we could handle it.

Two more things happened that sealed his fate. One time, a friend of mine pulled him by his collar closer to her and he freaked out. Again, she didn't have a serious injury but he put his teeth on her. Unacceptable. The last thing that happened was the worst. I won't go into a ton of detail, but he ended up jumping on and scratching the stomach of one of my piano students. The kid was terrified and I was shocked. This kid was not a stranger. He had been coming to our house for months and Buckley had never had a problem with him. There was no excuse for it. I could make up reasons why it happened, but ultimately, we knew what we had to do.

He needed a new home, a home without children, without constant movement and new people. We tried to find someone that we knew who would fit that criteria and be willing and happy to take him, but it wasn't meant to be. Ultimately, I ended up calling the organization that we got him from and they said that by contract we were supposed to bring him back to them anyways. I hadn't remembered this and it didn't make me feel any better about it. I felt like we were betraying him. He had finally found a home where he was loved and he felt secure, and we were taking that away from him just like that.

Bringing him there was one of the hardest things I've ever done. I know it seems silly to be so attached to a dog, but he came such a long way in the three years we had him and we loved him dearly. While our children come first and that love is totally different, the love of a pet is a strong thing. As I was leaving the shelter, he gave me a look that absolutely broke my heart. I'm not naive enough to think that he knew what was going on, but he knew I was leaving without him at that moment. I'll never forget the look on his face. I cried the whole way home. 

The expectation is that he will be with a foster family soon that will hopefully lead to an adoption. I pray that someone gives him a chance, because although he is a large dog, he is gentle and sweet. He spends most of his time laying around and loves to just hang out. He'd be perfect for someone without kids that doesn't have people coming and going all the time like we do. 

Hubby and I have talked about if and when we'd get another dog. At this point, I'm thinking it won't be any time soon. I could see us getting a dog when our kids are old enough to help out or when I am home alone for parts of the day, but other than that, I don't want to get a dog just to replace him (that would be silly). They do take time and energy and for now that love needs to go to our kids.

The house is empty now. At least it feels that way. I keep waiting for him to scratch at the door to come back in or come out of our bedroom after a long nap. It just makes it harder that he is not yet adopted and waiting for a new home while he had a good home here.

Ultimately, we had to do what was best for him and for us. We could have made him an outside dog but I'm not sure he would have been able to handle that. We could have put him in the garage when we had people over but that didn't solve the problem of our own kids being too aggressive to him. Our guilt is strong right now but we know it will fade. It is out of our hands now.

I am truly thankful for the years we did have with him. He was a great dog.

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From Buckley

Buckley's been bugging me all week to say this very important message for him.

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! My year's been great, but things have changed more than I was prepared for. The biggest change is that there is this little human that is always grabbing at me and pulling my hair. I pretend I don't like her but in reality I like to just sit and watch her most of the time. She's cheap entertainment, what can I say?

I'm in the process of overcoming an addiction. You see, since that little human came into my house, these little rubber things have also come. And. they. are. delicious. But they make me sick. It's a tough life, but someone's gotta live it.

The best thing about my life is that I get the rule the house all day since the humans usually are gone. I like to just lay around and bask in the sun, but sometimes I like to just lay in the bedroom with the shades drawn. Things get crazy around here so the peace and quiet does a dog good.

Here's hoping that the next year is even better than this one!

Love,

the Buck

Turbo Tuesday

On Sunday night, Buckley decided that he needed to go outside every two hours. This means that one (or both) of us had to get up to let him out, wait for him to do his thing, and then let him back in. You may be wondering why we would allow him to do this to us in the middle of the night. The answer is simple. Do you want to be cleaning up puke/poop (excuse the vulgarity) instead of sleeping? We think it is his new food. I mean seriously why else would you need to go to the bathroom every two hours? He didn't eat one of Josie's toys (a common culprit) and he's not acting sick in between bathroom visits. He did this all again last night. Joy.

I think he's trying to see how much we really love him.

This weekend, whily trying to finish the Jo's Halloween costume, the needle on the sewing machine got jammed and broke. In half. I inherited this sewing machine from my mother which means I don't truly know how to use it past the basics, and would have no clue how to fix it if it was really broken. Thank God it was only the needle which is easily replaceable and not something more. Crisis was averted after finding that JoAnn's Fabrics has like 20 different needle options. Once again, they never fail me. Never.

Except...that I can't ever leave there with just the thing I came for. A clearance rack was shouting my name, and this is what I came home with.


Well, not the baby. You can't get something that great at JoAnn's. But the flower on her headband? They have a lot of those. I also got a yellow one and some fancy schmancy elastic in case this flower-on-a-bow option doesn't work. See what I did there? I let you in on my secret. That is just a headband with a bow covered up. So tricky...

I heard rumors that it might snow this weekend. I wonder what Josie will think of the it? She liked wind, so she has that going for her. Good thing we live in the windiest city in the world (you got nothing, Chicago).

Tomorrow I am going to go to Body Pump at 5:45 AM. YES. In the morning. I am specifically writing this in this post so that I am held accountable because you can believe it when I say that I will not want to get up at 5:25 tomorrow morning. But it must be done. (Say it isn't so!! Why must I work out to get in shape?? Oh, life, you can be cruel)

When filling gas yesterday, we figured out that Tracey the Trailblazer is only get 13.5 MPH. What the what?? I am not that crazy of a driver. Tracey, you disappoint me. We were supposed to be a team. Now Mike thinks you are lazy and inefficient.

To top of Buck's meltdown moments that have already taken place, he also pushed open the (almost, oops my bad...) latched gate yesterday in a panic because he had the runs (you know what I mean right?) and didn't know where to go. Obviously, the logical choice is to break in to the basement and go on the carpet, in the back room, where there is 2 feet of room to work with. That means harder to clean spacewise and harder to clean carpetwise. Thanks, Buckley, for starting off this week with a putrid smell taking over the house. I get that it is not your fault, but the upstairs hard surface floor will do just fine in the future. Much easier to clean up. Better yet, just avoid the messyness all together. Ok thanks.

Buck the truck you are too funny

Just another night at the Deyle's.

Best part of the night? Buckley playing by himself, although he thought Ginger (sis-in-law's dog) was playing too.

That dog is a goon.

What were you doing at 4:45 AM?

Well, my hubby and I were trying to coerce our dog to come up the stairs from the backyard to come inside and go back to bed. WHAT IN THE WORLD??

Yesterday, before I got home, Mike had let Buckley out and he would not come back in. He just stood at the bottom of the stairs and waited. So when Mike said "come on, lets go inside" he'd take one step up and two steps backwards. Finally Mike went down there and tried to pick him up. At this point it appears that Buckley thinks the steps are slippery and he doesn't want to attempt them.

There must be more to it because when Mike picked him up Buckley showed some serious teeth. I don't know how many of you have met this lovely pup we have but he's not that kind of dog. He'll growl a bit to strangers but that only lasts for a while. So Mike scolded him.

See here's the thing. When I scold him, he is all humble and sweet and we make up and move on. But when Mike does, Buckley is scared of him for the rest of the day and keeps his tail between his legs. I really hate the man that made him this fearful! (Sidenote: we got Buckley from 4 Luv of Dogs, and he was not in a good home at all before he was abandoned.) So of course he acted like this all last night.

Back to 4:45 AM. WHY ARE WE UP AND STANDING OUTSIDE. He would not come in! Mike finally had to put a leash on him and practically drag him up. Oh, this was after he woke the whole neighborhood up chipped at this ice for 10 minutes hoping it would help.

But it gets worse. So now that we've been up for about a half hour, we finally get him back into the bedroom and tucked in his bed. And then he whines. For like 45 min. I tried to get him to stand up and he couldn't do it! So here he is... all pathetic like, unable to stand up, and we are mad and tired and just want to sleep.

I guess he hurt his back somehow.. he winces pretty bad if we touch his back in a certain spot, but he needs our help standing up. He's so pathetic I can hardly stand it! Those big eyes looking at me like "Sorry but I can't go anywhere"... its breakin my little heart!

Have you heard of dogs throwing their backs out?

Just in case you forgot what he looks like.
This picture was taken before we were living in the whole house... so excuse the mess behind them. Also, excuse Mike's cheesy smile. :) Aren't they cute?