If it was the right thing to do...

...then why do i feel so bad?

We sold Kya last night. This is one of the pictures we used to list her.

She looks so sweet and innocent doesn't she?

Then I think of all the H-E-double hockey sticks she put me through in the last two and half years.
-ripped my favorite mother's day swing to shreds.
-chewed the siding on the house.
-dug huge holes in the yard.
-killed three of our neighbors chickens.
-barks every time I go into the garage.
The list could go on and on.

But then I think of the times that she didn't bother me.
-When we go camping and she wears herself out running all day and we find her curled up on our air mattress by 7:00.
-After she had been hunting with Rob and she was tuckered out and so calm.
Yep, that's about it.

I had talked about getting rid of her for a long time. After the chicken incident I was done. She was a good dog but far too hyper to be couped up in our back yard all the time. We didn't have the time, or the motivation to get her out like she needed every day to run all that energy off. I talked to Rob about it a couple of times, pled my case and he finally agreed that the eight days of hunting he does a year did not necessitate having a dog the other 357 days.

I took some pictures of her and put them online. Because it wasn't necessary that we sell her we were going to be really picky about who we let take her. She needs lots of attention and even more room to run so that was very important in anyone that wanted to look at her. We didn't get any calls on her the first couple weeks and I was starting to think we may have her forever. Then we had a call from a guy in HOmedale. He wanted to come see her but didn't know when he could get out here. Great. The next day we received another call.  He lived on a farm outside of Ontario. Sounded like a good fit on the phone so he said he would come by at 6:30. Turns out he has 160 acres between Ontario and Vale and he had a German short hair for 12 years and just had to put him down three weeks ago. He said he's always had 2 or 3 dogs running around and didn't know what to do without a dog around. He saw Kya for about 15 minutes and said he wanted her.

We let the kids say goodbye and it was downhill from there. Emily and Tay were crying and before long Rob started in too. I started to think that maybe my decision to get rid of her was selfish and, maybe I hadn't really thought of what it might mean to everyone else. I felt terrible. If it was the right thing to do then why did I feel so bad? I started talking to Taylor and was explaining that even though it's hard to say goodbye Kya was going to be so much happier where she can run and be free. She can chase birds, chase the tractor and run until she can run no more. In the end I knew we had done the right thing but, I've learned, the right thing isn't always the easy thing.