Monday, April 27, 2009

A breeders heartache I hurt so much for the owners

Hi Lyle-

I wanted to email you and let you know what is going on with Puppy and us
these days.

Puppy is growing into a beautiful dog. Wherever we go with her, people
ask us about her and admire her. When we've taken her to the dog park
both husband and I agree that she is the most beautiful dog in the large
dog section and interacts with the other dogs better than the vast
majority of the dogs there. We all love her.

Balanced against is though is some serious emotional and behavioral
problems that son has been having, particularly since the beginning of
the year. We have been working with his neurologist, psychiatry and
now with a behavioral specialist to get him more balanced but at least
so far, we haven't made the kind of progress that we had hoped for.
Son can be wonderful one moment and angry and upset the next. I know
that you know puppy to be a sensitive soul, so you can imagine how his
erratic behavior is making puppy very anxious. We do our best to keep
them apart when he is acting this way but in real life it is not always
possible.

husband and I have talked about this a lot and we have even warned son
about what might happen if he doesn't control his temper. We really
feel that puppy should be in another home. Someday, Son will get
better but it won't come soon enough for puppy's best interest. We want
her to be a calm home, Lyle. I'm sad to say ours is not right now. We
feel puppy deserves better. I picture her in a calmer environment,
ideally with a kind but authoritative owner and preferably no small
children.

I don't think that I have to explain to you how difficult this decision
is. We have grown attached to puppy these last few months and made her
one of the family. But I have to ask myself if this is really good for
her? Sadly, it is not. We remember that the contract that we signed
with you stated that in the event that it didn't work out that we would
return puppy to you. If that is still your preference, we will certainly
do that. We have found that puppy gets terribly car-sick so it's hard to
imagine driving her back to Utah, although I suppose we could ask our
vet for a med. Alternatively, we could put her on a non-stop flight
from XXXX to Salt Lake City. I'd probably also ask the vet for something
to sedate her for that as well.

Lyle, in the back of mind is a certain fear that you will be mad at me.
You trusted us with your beloved puppy and while we have taken very good
care of her, we find ourselves needing to return her. We've never had
to do this with a dog before. It feels like a sad defeat for me personally.

We do hope you understand our decision and don't mind hearing this in an
email rather than a phone call. It's hard enough for me to type this
let alone talk about it. However, I will give you a call in a few days
and we can discuss the best arrangements.


Warm regards,
XXXXX

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