Saying Goodbye to Riley

On Saturday, we sadly told Riley goodbye as she has left our family. We've found a place for her to go as it has become apparent that she could no longer stay with us. She wasn't happy living in our laundry room, separated from us most of the day and we weren't comfortable with the risk she posed our son and neighborhood children. We've had Riley for almost 4 years. In fact, she just turned four after Aidan's birthday. And before Aidan, she was a great dog. We treated her like our baby, which was part of the problem. Then Aidan came. At first, she was ok with it. She was a little freaked out and lonely but, our neighbor Michelle helped a lot by taking her for walks for us and letting her play with Mabel. (Mabel may be the coolest dog ever. Second only to my parents' dog Doc.) And Riley loved this since Mabel was her best friend. Julien ran with Riley too and took her hiking. Then when we moved to Missouri. Riley said goodbye to her friends and her hiking trails and things hadn't been the same since. Soon after coming to Missouri, Aidan began walking. Riley already had a problem with Aidan crawling, as she would follow him and sniff him. It weirded her out. Him walking completely freaked her out. She didn't do well with him, or little ones in general, at all. Some dogs don't do cats or other dogs. Riley doesn't do kids. So after consulting with a vet behaviorist, and really looking at what we were willing to commit to and accept risk-wise, we decided it was time to find her a new home. She's miserable from lack of attention and exercise, and she may never be cool with kids. We thought the right thing for her was to find her an appropriate home where she can be loved and comfortable and, hopefully, live out the rest of her days. Never did we think that doing the right thing would be so hard. It is a stressful and discouraging experience, trying to place a rescue dog. Luckily, our breeder also runs a rescue. She was a huge help, putting ads up for Riley and trying to push us in the right direction. Unfortunately, she had no room to take Riley for us. She's taken 30 dogs this year, including dogs from neglectful breeders and puppy mills. I don't know how she does it. So, we put up ads on several websites for adoptions, including the breeder's site and a breeder in TX too. We hadn't had many calls for her. The last one was really hopeful. They had one malamute and a lot of land and the lady seemed really interested. But, after agreeing to take Riley, the lady disappeared. No calls or emails, which showed me that my instinct that this may not be the best place was right. So, with the help of Kathy and her connections, we found a malamute breeder two hours away who was willing to take her as a rescue and find her a new home. They were very nice when we met them. You could tell they were good people, not shady at all, and that their farm and animals are their lives. They were nice to Riley and were confident that they could find her a home. And they have teenage children who maybe can give Riley some extra attention. They have a 125 foot play yard for the dogs, which I'm sure Riley loves, and they were going to let her play with the other dogs too. There are pictures of her on their website, www.missourimalamutes.com, under puppies for sale there is a link for available adults. In all, this has been the worst experience. It has been stressful and nervewracking. We even had people tell us they would have just put her down in the beginning. I guess that's why this has been so hard, we're trying to do the right thing for Riley. We stopped things from getting to that point, or at least that is what we've tried to do. After all this, I'm not sure I'll ever want another dog. If we ever do, we will be much much wiser about it. If I had it to do again, I would've waited to get dog after having children. I encourage all out there looking for a dog to seriously consider a rescue dog or even a retired breeding dog. There are a lot of rescues out there that need your help.