Davis Dog Dilemma

I am not even sure why this is a dilemma, I am surprised at my own feelings.

Terry has put our dog in the paper!!!! He is going to sell Chance!!

Part of me is to the moon excited! I really really do not like that dog.

No more having to fix our fence that he tears down on a daily basis,

No more having to keep him chained up anytime he is out side because of the before mentioned problem,

No more sweeping at least 2 full cups of dirt and hair off of my floor EVERY DAY (oh how I wish I was exaggerating that point!),

No more bleaching my floor daily because the nasty dog has an affinity for toilet water which he drinks then dribbles all over the place (the toilet water alone would be bad enough but I happen to have 4 children 3 of which are potty trained, but this training is limited to going in the toilet, the actually flushing process rarely happens, so you can fill in the blanks with this one . . . yeah, it's not pretty!)

No more having to chase him down the sidewalk in my bare feet through the freezing frosty grass every time the front door opens and be bolts for the neighbors, where he is rewarded with treats (86 year old man who loves Chance to pieces, how do you get mad at that?),

No more picking my kids up out of the dirt and mud after Chance plows them down with his gargantuan self,

No more having to scrap the poo off of at least one of my kids shoes everytime they come in from playing in our landminded back yard

No more countless shoes and dolls and toys and socks chewed to pieces because they were on the floor,

No more getting gassed out of our own home after Chance eats, ANYTHING not labeled, "Dog Food" (If you have never experienced this, there is no way to even describe)

Ever since we got this dog I can go from zero to boiling in .02 seconds, I have never been one to "loose" it until Chance.

And yet I am oddly kind of sad that we could not or will not make it work with him. He has been with us for 18 months and as much as I don't like him, he seems sort of a fixture around here. not that we didn't try, though, but the time requirement for a dog like this is huge, way more then we have to give. I was worried what kind of message it would be sending to the kids, "Chance acts bad, so he is out of here!" We did talk with them about this decision first.

The conversation went something like this, "Who does mom and dad yell at?" the answer, all of them very loudly "Chance!!!" Sad, I know, anyway we just explained that it is our fault that we can not keep the dog, we are supposed to be learning how to be nicer and better people and mom and dad are really not doing so well at that lately especially with Chance.

So we are getting rid of him so he can go live with a family that won't yell at him so much. they were fine with that plan (none of them like him much either) but he was still sitting there at that point, how is it going to be when someone actually comes to pick him up?

And as frustrated as Terry gets with him, he really loves that dumb dog, and I know he is going to cry, that kills me! So what to do? I think the decision is pretty well made but it is still a hard one. And if this is how it is going to end then the only thing I am really the saddest about is the fact that we put up with him for SO LONG!