Dog...a man's best friend?

       When Keegan and I were engaged, we agreed that every family needs a dog and if we were starting our own family, we needed one too. As it would happen, my mom's yellow lab Goldie (RIP,) had a sweet litter of puppies about 8 weeks before our wedding. I chose my favorite from the litter and we named her Dixie. Dixie moved out to TX with us, and she completed our little family, (for the moment.) Those first few months in TX were kind of lonely for me. I had just moved half way across the country, I didn't know anyone yet, and Keegan was gone working a lot. Needless to say I really grew fond of Dixie. She was my constant companion and she brought me a lot of comfort, especially when Keegan was gone, and then when he deployed. She was also a royal pain in the butt... house training her, her chewing on things, her yanking free of her leash and chasing people down in the park, etc....but, we loved her nonetheless and we knew one day the shenanigans of puppy-hood would pass. (This story is getting a bit lengthy as they usually do when I try to tell a story, so I'll try to cut to the chase.) Keegan deployed, and Dixie and I moved back home to my parent's house in FL for the time. When Keegan was injured in Iraq and we unexpectedly moved back to TX, Dixie remained at my parent's home in FL until we were able to get her back. My parents live out in the woods on 5 acres, so Dixie grew accustomed to wandering, chasing cows, killing chickens, rolling in dead animals...you know, "dog things." When Dixie finally rejoined our family more than a year later, she was not thrilled about becoming a house dog again. She started acting depressed and she gained a lot of weight. Even though we walk her frequently, she still just doesn't get the exercise she needs. Lately she's been jumping the fence every single time I let her out into the back yard. She pretty much just roams the neighborhood looking for action, and she always comes back and sleeps on the doorstep when she's done, waiting for me to let her in. Our neighborhood has a strict leash policy though, so neighbors keep bringing her home, and apparently some have even called animal control. Animal control has returned her 3 times, (she's microchipped so they can get our address by scanning her.) We decided to put a stake in the ground outside and put her on a chain inside the fence. This worked for a little while until she realized she could jump the fence still attached to the chain, and then wriggle free of her collar once she was on the other side. We can't leave her inside the house because she gets on the furniture, (leaving dog hair EVERYwhere) and knocks over the trash and spreads it through the house. We've tried leaving her in the garage when we leave but she knocks things over and chews things up. I have been at my wits end lately with her! the other day she had escaped from the back yard again. I had just gotten Raleigh to sleep, which meant if I was lucky, I'd have 45 minutes to an hour before Liam woke up from his nap. No sooner were Raleigh's eyes tightly shut, than my doorbell rang. It was a neighbor bringing Dixie home. Dixie ran past my legs into the house and immediately I was hit with the most awful smell. Dixie had found some sort of dead animal in the woods and had rolled in it....ugh! My next hour was spent bathing her in the back yard with the hose, then taking a shower myself to get the grossness off me. Just as I was finishing up my shower, both kids woke up. I was so livid. Dixie had spoiled my only free moment of the entire day! The next day she managed to get out yet again, and animal control brought her back saying that the next time they did, we'd have to pay a fine to get her back. I'm so lost on what to do! I know she's acting out because she doesn't get enough attention and exercise, but I also am already spread too thin and I have no extra time to do anything extra with her. Keegan said we should get her another dog for a companion, but I refuse. It may work, but if it doesn't we'd be stuck with 2 dogs and twice the trouble...
         

(Here's a picture of Keegan, Dixie, & I - Summer 2007.)

    So today I was headed out for a walk with the kids in the double stroller. It's really hard to walk Dixie when I'm by myself pushing the stroller, because it's so heavy I need both hands to push, and Dixie yanks and tugs at the leash the whole time. But I knew she needed the exercise, so I was going to find a way to take her. I got the genius not-so-smart idea to tie Dixie's leash to  the stroller handle, that way I could push the stroller and she could tag along beside it. The first 3/4 of our 2 mile walk was a huge pain. Dixie wouldn't stop pulling, then she'd stop to sniff and we get jerked to a stop. Then she'd get all up in the stroller wheels and get her paws ran over. Ugh! About a quarter mile from our house, I saw some dandelions a few feet off the sidewalk. I knew Liam would love to have to one to blow the seeds off of, so I decided to grab him one. For a fleeting moment I thought "I really shouldn't let go of this stroller with Dixie tied to it," but, as usual I ignored common sense and let go of the stroller. I stepped 3 feet away to grab some dandelions, and as I stood up with the dandelions, I saw Dixie start to walk away out from the side of the stroller As soon as I started to utter the words "Dixie, no!" I watched in horror as she took off, and in doing so pulled the stroller with my most prized posessions in it, right over onto it's side. Liam was able to react and brace the fall with his arm, but my poor helpless five month old Raleigh was flung forward and her head crashed into the sidewalk. I was paralyzed with fear for an instant, then I began shaking uncontrollably. Both kids were screaming. I threw the stroller back upright and picked Raleigh up. Her forehead was bleeding and she was screaming so loud I couldn't even hear Liam crying. :( I rocked Raleigh there close to my chest trying to get her to calm down. I was shaking so hard and crying for my children. After a few moments Raleigh's cries eased and I was able to give Liam a once over, he was okay, just a bump on the head and a scrape on the arm. I was able to get Raleigh to stop crying, and amazingly enough she actually started grinning at me. (God's sense of humor maybe?) I was still panicky though, and I was trying to remember if it was dilated eyes, or not dilated eyes that was a sign of a concussion? Then I kept telling myself that if she was smiling and cooing something must be wrong with her! Maybe she was delirious? I put her back down into the stroller and began heading back to the house. (It was only because I was in such close proximity to so many homes that I did not beat the living tar out of Dixie. The last thing I needed was to be reported for animal abuse.) As we walked I called my mom and in panic told her what happened, seeking advice on whether or not I should take Raleigh to the ER to have her checked. Even though she seemed okay once I calmed her down, I was still concerned, because often with trauma to the head, you can't see the seriousness of it til later. I also talked to Keegan, and we agreed to call the advice nurse. I got home and got the kids inside, put a cartoon on for Liam, and washed Raleigh's forehead with a cool rag. Then, still shaking, I spent the next 45 minutes on hold with the ER advice nurse. She went through an entire list of questions to determine the seriousness of Raleigh's imjury, and in the end she said Raleigh is probably just fine, she'll just have the pain of the scrape to deal with. She said to wake her up every 4 hours throughout the night to make sure she wakes up, (no problemo there, the kid wakes up every 3 hours as it is!) I was relieved to get some reassurance from the nurse, but I have kept that tight, stressed-out feeling in my chest all night. It's definitely not the best way to start out a week of Keegan being gone again. Thankfully Raleigh went on to have a perfectly normal evening, just with a big swollen red forehead. Kid's are so resilient I swear! I'm so thankful that I had her buckled in so tightly, I cannot imagine how much worse she would've been had I not added the shoulder straps! I learned once already that babies MUST be strapped in at all times. (Yes, I also threw Liam out of his stroller at an airport when he was 4 months old. Parent of the year right here, I'm telling ya!)

                      Now back to the issue of Dixie....I understand that this can not realistically be blamed on Dixie. It was my bad judgement for tying an 80 lb dog to a stroller. (Why I am even admitting this kind of foolish decision to you all, I really don't know....so you can learn from my mistake maybe?) However considering I've already been at my wits end with that dog, this was like, the final straw. I don't know what to do with her. We love her very much, Liam loves her, she's SO great with him! But I just don't feel like she gets what she needs here, and I don't know what to do. *Sigh* There you have it folks, my dog dilemma and the story of Raleigh's first major boo-boo. Now please comment here with the magical solution to my predicament. Please and thank you.

Raleigh proudly showing off her first big boo-boo.