Sad day ....

Yep, today was a sad day but last night was even worse. Roscoe is no longer living with us. He did the unthinkable -- he bit. My kid.

It all started last night when Chad was at church rehearsing for worship team - because, as most of you Moms know, NONE of this crap (yep, that's what it is - CRAP) happens when Daddy is home. There was a piece of chicken on the counter and Roscoe had his front paws sniffing it. Kennedy told him "NO ROSCOE" and pulled on his collar to get him down. He turned, grabbed her face with his paws, and bit her. There were 2 loud barks - what I call 'warning barks' - that he would normally do when Cameron was rolling on him, or if the cat was near him or whatever. It has never bothered me. After the 2 barks, I heard a scream. Now, Kennedy has done this before and it has been nothing - 100% of the time. She came running THROUGH THE FAMILY room screaming that Roscoe had bit her. I grabbed her face and saw NOTHING. She was screaming and I was telling her "No baby, he just barked at you" and then blood came pouring out of her mouth. Let me tell you - it freaked me OUT. THEN her face started swelling and the scratch marks started to bleed. I rushed her into the shower, bathed her with anti-bacterial soap and made her rinse her mouth out with anti-bacterial mouthwash. I actually had some antibiotic cream that we had from 2 weeks ago when Cameron had an infection on his foot - so I slapped that on there too. It appeared that Roscoe just went after her because he thought she was going to take the chicken. Had it been me, he would never have done it. Chad came home and we made the decision that Roscoe had to go back to the SPCA. Here's the hard part - he is a good boy. I really wrangled with the decision because he was such a cool, fun pet to have around, but he did tend to get a little agressive. More than should be in a house with a 5 yr old and a 3 yr old. I cried today when Chad told me he had dropped him off but the lady at the SPCA is a good friend of ours and she promised she would make sure he went to a good home - they are a no-kill facility -so that wasn't an issue. Our risk was that he would do it again and we know he probably would do it again -- also, we didn't want to risk him doing it to a friend's child, etc - I would NEVER forgive myself. We really love Roscoe and Kennedy was so upset this morning when I told her that Daddy had to take him back to see Marissa (our friend at the SPCA) but they agreed that we did the right thing. We felt like we had finally succeeded with a dog as we have had SEVERAL dogs in the past and it just NEVER worked out.

When Kennedy was crying and in shock, she did look up at me and say "Someone needs to pray for me" and I loved that she knew that is what would make her feel better. PLUS a lot of TLC --- she was so worried everyone would call her 'ugly' (her face is pretty messed up, but I refuse to post a picture) ... just keep her in your prayers that she will make a speedy recovery!!