A very sad accident and trying to find happy.

A couple posts ago I sorta cryptically mentioned some issues between our three boxers. WE LOVE our dogs. LIKE more than is probably in the realm of normalcy. We have had Macy (she just had a b-day and turned 6) since she was surrendered to www.boxerrescue.com when she was 18 months. We've had Levi for about a year and 3 months since we adopted him from our local shelter when he was 6 months. We've had Cosmo for about a year after an idiot decided he didn't want him anymore and was going to give him a syringe of DRANO when he was 7 months old. We didn't intend to keep Cosmo because 3 dogs is a lot of dog. We placed him once with my sister and after 4 days he came back because his youthful puppy enthusiasm was tooooo much for her older lab and her then 18 month old Mason and 2 1/2 year old Grace. I then placed him with a wonderful family who had a 2 year old Boxer. He came back after 2 days because their boxer was having some aggressive issues toward Cosmo and wasn't to happy to add him to the household. So we decided to keep him. We had fallen in love with him initially and he felt comfy here already. The boys got along famously! RUNNING crazy about 3/4 of the day. If you have never had a couple of boxers or seen a couple of boxers playing you probably can't even FATHOM the chaos that happens. Their complete JOY and friendship(well the boys at least, Macy is a bit too cool to usually get involved) is such a wonderful heart-warming thing to witness. However, we did have several disputes over pack order, nothing that wasn't normal. In the early spring we had a full on 3 dog fight that unfortunately led to Macy having about 8 staples. It was over nothing and it was totally all 3 involved equally, unfortunately I think Macy got the brunt of it because the boys teeth are sharper because they are younger. The next day they were back to doggie peaceful friendly happy friendship. Then about a month ago the same thing happened. AGAIN all three were involved and it started over nothing at all. Macy this time had to be put under and got about 22 staples...not pretty and big bucks again. We realized then that this probably isn't going to work. It was breaking our hearts but we know for the safety of EVERYONE involved, someone had to go. I tentatively put some feelers out (all the while crying). EXTREMELY unfortunately the SAME thing happened Friday afternoon. VERY unfortunately, Cole stuck his leg in between the
two boys ( we had separated Macy already at that point). As they were attacking each other Cole's calf happened to be part of the equation. Inadvertently, and SADLY he was bitten by Cosmo. Please understand that COSMO, nor any of the others would EVER hurt any of us intentionally. EVER. They are sweet and loving to us, kissy and always affectionate even when one of the feet accidentally gets stepped on or something.

Poor Cole, was bitten through his favorite pair of Gap jeans. ( We'll just consider them distressed now) Peyton was already on her way to a friends so she went there. Callie stayed home and I made a quick call to my husband at work to let him know that we were off to the emergency room DEFINITELY for stitches. We walked into the leper ward at our local hospital. Well, at least it felt like that, 3/4 of the people had masks on and looked TERRIBLE and the place was PACKED. Luckily, we got called back to Triage quickly (considering that it was a dog bite) then were whisked to the pediatric waiting room which wasn't quite as bad. 6 hours later, Cole got 13 stitches. All the while I felt like (and continue to feel like) the worst MOM ever for not taking care of this situation a couple months ago. I'm so sorry that it came to this and to see my baby boy (who is taller than me and we weigh about the same but he'll ALWAYS be my baby boy) endure this. With dog bites they often don't even stitch up at all and let it heal from the inside out but his needed some help. The stitches are placed not very close together, purposely to allow it heal on it's own. So you can imagine it was quite large.

Needless to say, one of the boys needs to be placed into a new home. We've consulted our Vet and he agrees that 3 isn't working (duh for me) and since this pattern has started it's not going to end. Heartbreakingly, it has come to the point where one of my children was hurt. This photo of Cole is
and Cosmo is from this morning. It's going to hurt our hearts but it HAS to be done.

In a bit of other news. I was given a couple old windows from our friend Curt, www.wadecontractors.net and I think I'm going to do a project for the powder room. Come on back later for that!

Another section of the kitchen cabinets are almost done. Don't mind Matt's corner of tool and paint and other schtuff he needs while working. These need to be wiped now to show the distressing and then get a coat of poly.

Here is one of the new quotes on the chalkboard/magnetic board. It looks really sloppy because the kids keep writing goofy stuff below it that MUST be quickly erased!

Okay, so if you've made it this far, I'm amazed. But thanks for letting me ramble.  Anyway, obviously I'm looking VERY hard for HAPPY today,or tomorrow or anytime soon!  Oh and I'm having a procedure on my nerves in my back on Thur.  I'll talk
about that tomorrow!  Enough doom and gloom in one post! Believe me I know people can only handle so much DOOM AND GLOOM!  You've had your daily allotment!