A New Day

Joyful are those who listen to me, watching for me daily at my gates, waiting for me outside my home! Proverbs 8:34 NLT

Today I woke up and after the initial feeling of "just 5 more minutes" wore off, I was quite happy. I got Emma ready for school and walked her to the bus stop. And guess what, today at 7:10 am the sun was out! It was such a nice change to walk to the end of the driveway (we have a very long driveway) and see the sun. It's been months since it was light out when she left for school. Oh yah and did I mention it was warm? Well ok you got me, it's not really warm but 21 degrees feels like Florida after it's been zero for 3 weeks!

I know I probably sound like the biggest nut job in the world but all the world seems right today. And I don't know why, I just have peace, I am happy and the sun is shining what more could you want?

Now for something that happened this weekend. A couple of years ago our Lab Haley hurt her back leg. There is not much we can do for it unless we want to spend $4000 + on a hip replacement. I am sorry I love our dogs, but we just cannot spend $4000 to fix her. That may sound awful, but she is just a dog. Anyway, so she has always been protective of her leg....understandable. It does cause her pain and we try to help her out by giving her Aspirin on days it gets bad.
A couple of weeks ago Ethan stepped on her back leg by accident and Haley freaked out and growled. Now every time Ethan goes near her she growls and snaps at him. It's gotten to the point where we cannot trust them alone. Those of you who have little boys understand that they are rough with animals. This is just the way it is. And Ethan thinks it's funny when she growls so he tries to provoke it out of her.
Unfortunately, things went to far yesterday. Phil was upstairs with Ethan and Haley and went to Ethan's room to get something. Just as he did that Ethan walked to close to Haley and she growled. Just as she growled Phil yelled for her to stop and she flung around and bit Ethan in the head. Nothing major, but she did break the skin and there was blood.
Now Phil has made one of the hardest decisions of his life. We need to find a new home for Haley. It kills him to have to do this, but we either have to keep Haley locked up while Ethan is awake or visa versa. This is no life for either animal...lol! He feels guilty cause he was already in the process of purchasing another dog (a hunting dog, as Haley is a whimp and runs from the gun) and he feels like he is replacing her.
She is still a great dog. She just turned 5, is up to date on all her shots, she is still active, just not as active as she used to be because of her leg. She cannot walk more than 2 miles without being in pain. We feel really bad because we love her and there are no issues with any other family member and her (she has NEVER bitten before) it's just that she feels threatened when Ethan gets around her and she does what any normal animal would do to protect itself.
This is just not going to work out with Ethan being so little and we know we want more kids so it's just not fair to her. Anyway, hopefully we will find someone who either has older kids (6 and up), or no kids who would be willing to give her a good home. Who would love her. We don't want to give her to a shelter because we know that they will probably kill her. We are just praying that we find something soon, before something worse happens. Until then I am like a hawk watching both of them so closely. And if I can't be around, Haley gets locked up :(