Unfit Parents

They told us we were unfit parents. That hurt. But maybe they were right. I will let you decide. Here are our stories.

Hannah

I can still remember the day we brought Hannah home. Megan claimed ownership, but all three girls were so excited to have her.

When we moved to the country, we thought Hannah would relish the space. Unfortunately, two months after we moved, she was hit by a truck and killed. We think she was chasing a rabbit.

Megan was crushed. She grieved deeply for her dog. We decided to bury her out beside the pines. However, Gary didn't dig the grave deeply enough and well, I still remember one of the girls running into the house, screaming, "the ground is moving, the ground is moving." Apparently, maggots were doing what maggots do, only usually they do it 6 feet deeper.

Reba

Then came Reba. I only have two memories of Reba and one was in a previous post. The other was when we had Brace and Brenda and their kids overnight. Leslie and Brett opted to sleep outside in our tent and stocked it with their sleeping bags, snacks, their student Bibles (aww, such good kids), and other paraphernalia.

The next morning they came in for breakfast and when they went back out, they found that Reba had literally chewed up everything in the tent. All ten of us ran out to see the damage. There was polyfil stuffing all over the place from chewed up pillows and sleeping bags. Empty snack bags were in shreds. Even their student Bibles were chewed up. (Gives "feeding on the Word" new meaning!)

Gary immediately rounded up Reba and locked her in her kennel just outside the garage. One by one, we followed each other back into the house, and as each of us passed the kennel, you could hear, "Bad dog, Reba!" or "Dumb dog", or "BAAAAD!" Ten scoldings from ten people was probably more than that dog could take. I think she ran away soon after.

Cocoa

Cocoa was a chocolate lab. She was the prettiest dog we had, and the dumbest. Except for Reba, who was dumber. I don't really remember much about Cocoa. She ran away, too.

Bailey

Bailey was my personal favorite. She was the only that did her "business" back in the trees so there was never the chance of mowing over it, or stepping in it. Bailey was the most content of all of our dogs. That is, until the neighbor's new dog led her astray. Bailey had never wandered until "new dog" showed her that there was more to her world than our yard. That was the beginning of the end. She would be gone more and more until one day she never came back.

Well, those are our stories. I think we do better with grandchildren than we do with dogs. At least we haven't lost any of them!