Thursday, April 14, 2011

April 14, 2011 - Amber

Isn’t it a bummer when you start out having a perfectly good week and then something comes along and ruins it?  Wow – that was yesterday.  What a day.  A sad, emotional day.   One of our dogs – Amber, the one that Kaylie has been attached to -  got in a bad dog fight and killed another dog.  So, a few details.  Rick went jogging in the morning.  I stayed in bed, being lazy, because I’ve been up at night with a cough.  Kaylie and Tanner were up getting the day started.  And Devan had just gotten out of the shower.  I kept hearing Beethoven barking, but that isn’t too unusual for him.  But, the barking didn’t stop and then I heard Rick doing his “dog whistle” and yelling, but Beethoven continued barking.  That’s when I thought it started to be unusual.  So, I got up and asked Kaylie what was going on with the dogs.  She said that she hadn’t heard anything.  Just then Tanner came in the house very upset and said Amber had killed another dog and that dad needed me to come next door.  After climbing through the trees to our neighbor’s property I found Rick with the dead dog.  So sad.  I could not believe it. It was horrible.  And Amber had definitely killed it.  She was a mess.  Rick had found her hovering over it panting like crazy with blood on her.  I guess Beethoven was barking because he was watching the whole thing take place.  Rick said the dog was still alive when he saw them, but by the time I got there it had died.  Rick was pretty ticked.  And I was just so sad.  Then, to top it off, Rick said we’d have to put Amber down.  That if she had it in her to kill a dog the way she did, then she wasn’t safe.  It was so out of character for her.  Since we got her from the pound, she has been so wimpy and fearful.  She was Kaylie’s instant friend, but it took her a long time to warm up to the rest of us.  And she still never really warmed up to Devan.  So, this was especially sad for Kaylie.  Kaylie bathed her and took her for a walk.  Then Kaylie and I took her for a kayak ride (her favorite thing to do with Kaylie).  We contemplated letting her out of the kayak way down the river to run away, but figured she’d just find her way back home.  After lunch (because everything closes for a 2-3 hour lunch in Portugal) Rick took her down to the vet and had her put to sleep.  It was heart wrenching.  Tanner was so confused because he was mad at her for killing another dog, but then he was so sad because Rick put her down.  It was not a fun day. 

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