Bye Peeka

 Last night we said goodbye to Peeka. 

She's been with us for almost 5 years and Kyle has joked about getting rid of her the entire time. He finally found a legitimate reason though because while we were camping at Strawberry she bit another boy. A couple years ago she bit one of our neighbor boys when he came to feed her while we were away and I blamed us for not reintroducing Peeka to TJ before he came back into our yard. We said if it ever happened again we'd need to get rid of her. Well when we were at Flaming Gorge this year she tried to nip Will's hand and then at Strawberry she bit a boy's foot. Although none of the incidents drew blood, Kyle says he cannot trust her and would never forgive himself if she ever seriously bit one of our kids or one of their friends.

It's been hard for me because I don't think any of the incidents were bad enough to warrant putting her down, but where they have been random and unpredictable, I don't know how to recreate a situation in order to train it out of her. I have always believed that pets are for life. One of my life goals has been to have a dog for its entire life because out of all the dogs my family has ever had, we have never kept one for its whole life. So I am most definitely judging myself just as harshly as I judge all the other people that get rid of their dogs. We are the worst pet owners ever and don't deserve to have them. Even though I also think pets are super good for kids!

Peeka really has been a pretty good dog. She never learned how to walk on a leash very well, but she always stayed next to us so we didn't even really need one. Kyle had her trained to sit even after we threw her toy, until we told her to get it and then could be called back to us mid chase. She only pooped on one side of the yard. She stayed off the furniture, except sometimes when we went to bed at night and she knew to get in her house or on her bed when we told her to. She has been so great with our kids! She let them climb up, stand and pull on every part of her without ever seeming bothered by it. And they loved playing the blanket game where Kyle would hide with the kids under a blanket while Peeka tried to get them.

If you pet her at all she gets way too excited about it and she still digs massive holes in the yard every so often, but I think we might end up missing her.

She's been donated to my mom's non-profit, 4Gold to see if she can be re-homed somewhere perhaps without kids. So thank you Mom! And good luck Peeka.

And PS Don't watch Homeward Bound the day after you give your kids dog away. It's a real tear jerker.