Ivy the pup...

We're going to be trying to find Ivy a new home. Things have just been too difficult with her. Between her and the kids my days are eaten up and away. She's a great dog and I love her very much. This has been an extremely heart wrenching decision for me.

I've been spending a lot of my time training and her and just trying to keeping her occupied but it's just not working out. She's play nipped and jumped at Matty and Elijah enough times where they are scared of her. The boys won't get off the bed if she's in the house. They're terrified to go out in the back yard. I wrestled Matty out there the other day and he barricaded himself in the playhouse. As a result of trying to keep away from the dog they're watching twice as much tv as usual because they can't just go play outside or even sit on the ground.

I'm constantly trying to keep the puppy off of Phoebe. Phoebe actually loves the dog but Ivy knocks her over all the time and escalates from loving to verge of dangerous in 2.5 seconds and I'm getting worn out from keeping them apart all the time.

On Monday we had an ugly incident occur at the park which was the nail in the coffin for me. We were playing quite nicely when Ivy bounds up and jumps on Phoebe. The force of this jump knocks Phoebe over and they land on a sandy patch that gave way to a steep decline with an exposed storm drain with a ten- fifteen foot drop inside. I literally had to dive down into the drain in order to catch Phoebe up before she hit and and toss her towards a safe landing space while I hit the storm drain myself. All the while the puppy still jumping all over me and Phoebe.

Obviously I was big enough where the drain wouldn't have been even remotely dangerous for me but for a little tike like Phoebe, it could have been very scary and dangerous if she fell into the drain. I'm very lucky that I was standing there at that exact second rather than even a couple extra feet away.

Almost every time we take the dog out with us to parks or the beach I feel stressed out and disaster always seems to find us. Half of the time I'm prying Ivy off of Phoebe and the other half of the time they're simply all running in different directions and I don't have enough arms to reign them all in at once. If I was a Hindu goddess or an octopus this wouldn't be such an issue.

I love Ivy and I change my mind about finding her a new home dozens of times a day..... but I really do think this will be best for everyone in the end.