One of Those Difficult Decisions

Trey Smith

As Della and I have begun the slow process of downsizing, we realize that some of our most difficult decisions will be those which involve our pets. As homeowners, we can have as many as the law will allow and that we can afford. As apartment or house renters, it is often difficult these days to find a suitable place that will allow folks to have more than one, if ANY.

We have been looking into area senior/disabled housing and the general rule is one pet of no more than 25 lbs. Three of our pets -- Lilly (hairless Dachshund), Buddy (PomChi) and Dylan (cat) -- meet the weight standard. Sadly, Jasmine (pointer/lab) weighs 60 - 70 lbs. and there is no way she could lose enough weight to get anywhere close to 25.

Of our animal brood, Jasmine is the best behaved! She can be walked without a leash and comes when called. She doesn't bark a lot and we've never had a issue with potty problems in the house. She gets along well with other dogs and cats. Yet, for all of her pluses, her size means that, at some point before we move, we most likely will have to let her go. It will break our hearts.

That leaves the three small ones. The most likely candidate to remain with us is Lily. She comes in second in the behavior category. Though she can be a bit yippy and, in inclement weather, she's been known to potty in inappropriate places, she minds fairly well and gets along great with others.

Dylan, the cat, presents a big problem. Though he's been with us for 12 1/2 years, Dylan is psychotic, to put it mildly. If you don't let him in or out of the house as quickly as he prefers, he will scratch up the door or a window screen. Before we moved from Salem in 2005, we had to replace all the window screens in the front of the house because he had torn up all the old ones. We presently have a 6 inch gouge in the door frame of our front door courtesy of Dylan. He would be a security deposit nightmare!

That leaves Buddy, the PomChi. Buddy is a very lovable dog with two distinct issues: 1) He tends to bark incessantly and 2) He pees all over the house! For the 8 months we've had him, we've tried numerous strategies to try to break him of peeing all over our dining room and not one of these strategies has worked! It seems that each day when I get up, I find a new pee stain. (I clean them up and deodorize the rug only to find a fresh one the next day.)

It is because of his peeing problem that yesterday we made one of those difficult decisions. We contacted his previous owner -- the woman had given him up due to surgery -- and she said she's love to have him back. So, with a heavy heart, I took Buddy on one last car ride with me. He no longer lives here.

Eventually, chances are good that we'll have to take Jasmine and Dylan on a last car ride with us too. While giving Buddy back to his previous owner was hard, saying goodbye to Jasmine and Dylan will be gut-wrenching. They've been with us the longest.