Captain High Pockets!

Hi everyone. Our mom is hijacking our blog today because she has something very important to tell you all.

Mom here: It has taken me two days to be able to do this post. On Thursday night, I made the VERY difficult decision to send Pockets back to a foster home in Airedale Rescue. I dropped him off there, this morning.

Everyone who reads our blog knows about the problems we had been having with Pockets. Well, on Thursday afternoon, I was on the phone and Pockets decided to chew on the cord. I didn't have enough hands to stop him so I asked my husband for help. When he tried to get the cord out of Pockets' mouth, Pockets growled and bit my husband on the top of the hand. It is a cut that is about 1 1/2 inch by 1 inch. It laid back a flap of skin and bled profusely. Once we had washed and bandaged his hand, I went into a room by myself for about 3 hours to do some serious thinking and soul-searching. At the end of the 3 hours, I came to the conclusion that it isn't fair to my husband, Poppy or Penny to continue trying to turn Pockets into the great dog that I know he will be. He is just too big, too strong and too young for us to handle. At about 6:30 that evening, I called Airedale Rescue and made them aware of my decision. They agreed with me, completely, and made the arrangements for me to take him back to his former foster home. This has been one of the hardest decisions I have ever had to make, but it is best for everyone, including Pockets. He needs a very strong hand to guide him out of puppyhood and at this stage in our lives, we just aren't capable of being that strong hand. As most of you know, I have fallen down twice in the past week and my body hasn't had a chance to heal because I have been constantly wrestling with a dog that is about 35 inches tall and weighs over 68 pounds. When I was younger, this wouldn't have been a problem, but I am not a spring chicken anymore! My husband has severe Osteo-arthritis and he is always in pain so the strain of fighting that large of a dog has taken it's toll on him, too.

We are waiting for Airedale Rescue to find us a female that is smaller, a little older and more settled. I guess we are just too old to wrestle with a puppy! That will also be better for my two Aire-girls. Penny just turned 9 and she was getting her legs bitten and Poppy is almost 8 and she has ended up with 2 bloodshot and swollen eyes. I think a smaller Airedale will fit in better with both of them. They still like to play, but they also like to nap a lot and that wasn't possible with Pockets chasing them almost constantly. Since I got home from taking Pockets back, my two girls have stuck to me like glue and they keep putting their heads on my legs. I think they are thanking me for making their lives more comfortable. I also think that maybe God was trying to tell me that he wasn't the right dog for us, but I wasn't listening. I finally got the message when he bit my husband's hand. My husband has an artificial knee and any infection could go right to the knee and cause horrible problems so I am glad I finally realized what I had to do before things got any worse. We have asked Airedale Rescue not to label Pockets as a "biter" because in all fairness, he was cornered and his only choice was fight instead of flight.

I believe we tried as much as humanly possible to settle Pockets down, but we just couldn't do it. After two days of tears and feeling guilty, I now realize that I did the right thing for all of us. I hope all of you, that read our blog, will understand.

In a couple days, when we have all settled back down, the girls will go back to blogging as usual.

Aire-hugs to all of you!

Poppy & Penny's Mom