The guilt, it be bad

And for once, this isn’t about the boy. It’s about the dog. We got Kirby eight years ago over my objections. Let’s just say that Ben is more stubborn than me. The deal was that Ben was supposed to do all the dog care. Did that come to be? Of course not! I do just about all of it because I seem to have more empathy; I care if the dog has food and water and if he’s able to go outside…Ben manages to be oblivious to Kirby’s needs without guilt.

Since Sam’s birth, Kirby has been largely ignored because I don’t have time to walk him. I thought I’d just take the kid and boy for walks together but strollers and leashes of dogs that pull don’t mix. And I don’t have Sam-free time during the day to walk the dog so Kirby is the one who has suffered. That hasn’t helped Kirby adjust to the presence of the interloper. When Sam became mobile, Kirby growled at him whenever Sam got into his territory. At this point Kirby doesn’t do that; when Sam does something like sit on him he just gets a pleading expression on his face – please get this THING off me!

About a year ago Kirby started peeing on the floor so we took him to the vet. She didn’t find anything although she didn’t think it was marking because he was peeing in the middle of the floor. This has continued but I’ve found that if I let him out at least every two hours, he’s usually ok in the house. But it’s a pain and I’m not home every day so it doesn’t always work. At night we crate him or he pees everywhere. Maybe its just age, I don’t know.

Ben is totally fed up with Kirby. The peeing is the last straw for him. He’s also irritated that Kirby never turned out to be the hunting dog he wanted him to be. That was, in theory, the reason for getting the dog in the first place but Kirby just turned out to be a family dog. He’s a pretty good dog in general but definitely not perfect.

Today, Ben is taking Kirby to meet someone who is looking to adopt an older dog to be a companion to his other old dog. I don’t know if Kirby will be the right dog for him but I feel as though we’re abandoning him at the point when he’s old and needy and feel guilty for even considering it. It would definitely make my life easier to not have him around but still, we adopted him way back when and he’s done his doggy duty for the eight years we’ve had him. I feel as though the least we can do is keep him comfortable now that he’s getting old and that we’re shirking our responsibility by even thinking about getting rid of him.

My only hope is that if the man does adopt Kirby, he will have more walks, love, and attention, things that have been in rather short supply for him since Sam was born.