By Sarah Wilson, MA
Daisy came to me from the Humane Society of Missouri. The following is to the people who took her there:
You had other options. You could have kept her even though I can tell from her behaviors that she was a lot for you. You could have just given Daisy away to strangers. You could have tied her in the backyard or banished her to the basement to live out her days in abject isolation. You could have abandoned her in a park or “disposed of her” in some grizzly way. But you didn’t. You took her to a shelter where she got both good care and thoughtful placement. A place that would take her back if things didn’t work out and they might not have.
Daisy is cute as a button and highly social. She also arrived here rude, demanding, possessive of items, and completely lacking in self-control despite your obvious efforts to train her. Her looks, smile, and tail wag make her super easy to adopt out, and the rest of it nearly guarantees her return. With each return, she would be more confused and harder to live with. She could easily become what we in the biz call a “boomerang.” Such dogs really need to be taken to a shelter who will always be happy to see a dog again and…sometimes…again.
It’s popular these days to blame people for such mismatches. To shame them for handing over a dog to a shelter. But anyone who has dated knows that some pairings simply don’t work, and no amount of effort is going to change that.
So, to Daisy’s first family — your hard choice is my best gift. Just as someone we’ve broken up with can go on to live a happy life, Daisy landed in a good place for her. You did the right thing. Thank you.