Yesterday’s post about Philadelphia’s ACCT and the dog attack on my daughter generated a lot of views.  Surprisingly more than I anticipated.  While the situation was reckless and irresponsible, they did do the right thing after being contacted, and quite possibly after seeing the post.  Social media has a way of spurring people to action – especially if it’s not good press.

When I woke up this morning there was a comment saying that instead of taking Will to the shelter we should have taken him to our own vet to have him euthanized.  The point being that we caused him undue stress and terror at the end of his life instead of taking care of it ourselves.  A condemnation of how we handled things and an insinuation that we didn’t care for him, because we opted to surrender him.

Now, let’s just clear this up, because it’s been stewing in my head all morning.

Do I think that euthanizing him ourselves would have been less stressful for him and, if possible, a better option?  Absolutely.  It was a heartbreaking decision.  And it was, on that holiday night, after our vet had closed, the only option we had for removing him from our house.

Here’s the thing.  My kids? They ALWAYS come first.  Always. Always always.

We had a choice to make that night.  Cause fear and stress to the dog by surrendering him to the shelter or cause fear and stress to our children by having him be in the house when they woke up in the morning, and quite possibly, all day until we could get a vet appointment.

We chose our children.

And we’d do it again in a heartbeat.

So, don’t come commenting on my blog and saying that I didn’t love that dog.  I did.  I do.  I always will.  But at the end of the day, I will always choose my children over any pet.

If you wouldn’t….well, that says a lot about your priorities doesn’t it?