New News about the Pitter Patter of Little Feet

So I started the blog entry that proceeds this one a while ago about the newest member of out family, Daisy. What a cute and furry little (and I do mean little) addition. My joy with Daisy was not lasting, however. A week into having Daisy, Mike got fed up with her lack of potty training and, without me knowing, took her back. Yes, you read that right, he took her back. This from my husband who over thinks things quite a bit and is definitely NOT spontaneous in any decision.

After my anger subsided, I tried everything to get her back. I left the rinky dink little animal rescue group over 8 messages, 3 emails, 3 calls by Mike (again messages because they wouldn't answer our phone calls) and even a personal visit to Prosser because they wouldn't talk to us. They even got over a dozen of letters of reference on behalf of our family. Their response was frustrating and short. 1 phone call and (eventually) two email messages that stated they felt the puppy (Daisy) needed to be in a "more stable home environment" (yeah, you read that right too) and would we want to adopt one of their dogs that were already potty trained?

Then last week they put her back up to be adopted by someone else. It really broke my heart. I really can't believe how attached I was to Daisy. It actually felt like a member of my family was taken from me.

It sounds silly, but I was so consumed by these feelings that it was a bit overwhelming. My brain would not shut off! I prayed day and night to either be rid of the feelings for her or for me to be able to have Daisy back. I did everything I could.

Before I knew that she'd be back up for adoption (I honestly thought they said no because they already gave her away to someone else not because they just didn't like me), we found another puppy. It was apparent throughout this ordeal that I needed a dog to love. Life for me is changing. I felt the need to have someone to nurture who would give me unconditional love.

Our new puppy's name is Chloe. She's darn cute as well, not as small as Daisy, but maybe a bit smarter than her in my opinion (especially in the potty training area). We picked her up on Tuesday the 2nd, but she STILL wasn't Daisy for me. I still longed for my first furry love. As I said before, it was consuming. I think part of it was that I could forgive Mike much easier if I could "fix" the situation that he had caused. I mean, he was really in the dog house with Mykie and me (pun fully intended). The other part was that I just love Daisy.

When I found out that Daisy was available, I struggled with having someone go adopt her for me, finding someone to take Chloe and feeling guilty about ditching Chloe. When Mike and I talked about it, he was fine with the idea. I asked him if I was a psycho because of my obsession with Daisy. He kindly told me no. During all this - consuming thoughts of Daisy - I was still praying to be released from those feelings.

By Thursday night, I had a phone call out to a girlfriend to plan to have her adopt Daisy and I had two calls out to see if other people wanted to add Chloe to their family.

But sometime on Friday afternoon, the answer to all my prayers came. I suddenly felt released from the all consuming feelings I had for Daisy. I could finally have contentment with just Chloe. Friday night was the first night in 2 weeks that I fell right to sleep without thinking about the Daisy situation once.

It seems silly, this whole situation over a dog, but even though I had to be patient for two weeks to get my answer after all I could do, my answer did come and I did recognize the relief.

I wish this situation would have never happened, but in looking back I could have probably stopped it if I could have swallowed some of my pride in dealing with Mike that fateful Saturday Daisy was returned. That doesn't excuse Mike's choices in the situation, but I could have not endured this if I would have acted differently.

Some lessons learned are more difficult than others.