Saying Goodbye to a Pet is Harder Than I Ever Imagined
I'll start off by saying my dog Hippo didn't pass away or anything like that. He is however leaving my family to live with a foster family in Evansville, Indiana.
Anybody that knows me knows that I was never a big fan of dogs (especially big dogs) until five years ago when I bought a Great Dane that we named Hippo. Yes, I didn't care for big dogs, yet, I bought one of the biggest on the planet. I never thought in a million years that I would ever bond with a dog much less one of his size...but I did.
Over the past few months, I made the extremely difficult decision that I had to find a new home for him. I work really longs days and hate that I have to keep him in a cage while I'm not home. Somedays he'd be in there for up to 12 hours. I felt it was very selfish of me and not fair to him at all. He deserves to be with a family that can give him the attention and love he deserves every single day.
Finding someone that will take a Great Dane is not an easy task, it's literally life-changing and very expensive. A couple of weeks ago I found a family that I thought really wanted to take him and bring him into their family but after two days at their home, they said they just couldn't do it. Again, I get it, it's not an easy transition and I'm not judging. The hard part was going through all those emotions when he left, only to have him return. It was a curse and a blessing that's for sure. I was so happy that I had more time with him but I was back to square one again.
A couple of days after he came back home I was introduced to someone that volunteers for a Great Dane rescue that helps place Danes with foster families. They found a family that would foster him right away and this Sunday he leaves for Evansville, Indiana. While it breaks my heart, I'm happy he's going to a family that has a ton of experience with Great Danes. I'm also very confident that he'll eventually be placed with a wonderful family.
My friends kept telling me to post about him on social media but that was something I definitely didn't want to do because I felt like a failure for not being able to care for him anymore. Plus, I didn't want to give him to the first nut job that said they wanted a Great Dane. I needed to find the perfect family.
Hippo is a 150-pound goofball that we've had since he was a pup and I'll always love him. Saying goodbye will be the hardest thing I've ever had to do.