A Sad Day for the French Bulldog Village
cccpups July 25th, 2008
Benny, our endearing little Shih-Tzu/Frenchie Mix will be leaving us. Before coming to us, Benny had already had so much upheaval in his life that he was left permanently scarred, despite the best efforts of our French Bulldog Village volunteers to give him a sense of security. Was he abused before he came to the Village? We just don’t know. We do know that he arrived leery of new people and afraid of men.
The warning signs were there, but we made excuses for Benny. We sent him for a much needed hair cut, and he bit the groomer, but we reasoned that bite away. After all, groomers get bitten all the time, don’t they? He lunged at visitors, making perfectly clear his intentions to bite. We even reasoned that away, saying, oh well, he can be crated, we’ll find him a hermit to live with and to love, because that’s what makes it so heartbreaking. Benny was a loving dog.
He loved his foster mom, and he loved to play with her and the other dogs in his foster home. How could such a loving little dog exist inside such a dangerous package? Benny and his foster mom worked out their own truce, and we began to have high hopes for Benny’s future. We even found him an adoptive home where we were assured that visitors were few and far between. His foster mom delivered a crate to his new home with instructions to use it when visitors arrived. Benny bit the cleaning lady.
While Benny sat on house arrest in Oregon with his adoptive mom, we were finally forced to take a long, hard look at Benny. Neither love nor training had been able to give to Benny the self confidence he needed to tolerate strangers in his territory, to welcome them joyfully rather than with growls and lunges. In Benny’s mind, he must always be on the ready to protect against any intruder. Now we were faced with the obligation to protect the people he would inevitably meet. Benny posed an unacceptable risk to those people. We simply could not trust him.
Everyone is heartbroken at this turn of events. As a rescue group, the French Bulldog Village has to do the responsible thing, for the good of the dogs and for the good of the adoptive homes. We wish that every story could have a happy ending, but sometimes we will be faced with tough decisions. All that we can do is remind one another how hard we tried.
Benny will not leave us in some sterile animal control facility. His foster mom Linda will be with him, stroking his fuzzy little coat and reminding him how much he is loved. Please wish him well in his future journey, where he will endure no more pain or fear. We will all grieve the loss of Benny.
My family and I applied for Benny and had talked with his foster mom before the application. I know that she had high hopes for Benny and loved him. I am so sorry to hear that his little heart was so broken that he could not completely trust. It is a sad day indeed and I will say a little prayer for him in my heart.
I understand all too well the heartache involved in a decision like this. Less than a month ago, I too had to honestly evaluate my staffordshire bull terrier, Fern, and her extreme fear of people she didn’t know. She especially feared children, and the thought of what she would do if one little thing went wrong made my heart sink. Benny’s story strikes a chord with me because his behaviors sound so much like my Ferny’s.
Benny and Ferny both probably suffered unforgivable things in their pasts, but we have to remember that all the love in the world can’t always help a doggy recover from that.
I like to think that they are both running free now, without fear or anxiety, and that we’ll see them again one day. RIP, Benny.
I understand…
This May, I made the most difficult decision I have ever made. I put my precious 2.5 year old Frenchie down on May 29th, 2008. After working with him for over a year and a half on aggression problems, he was still attacking anyone and everyone. In the last incident, he attacked my neighbor’s foot so viciously that he bit through his own lip.
He was absolutely a dream dog with me alone, but he was not getting better. I tried everything- Prozac, Clonocalm, Chinese herbs, massage therapy, accupuncture, anti-anxiety medication, desensitzation training, counter-conditioning and more. With two bites already reported to Animal Control, a third bite would mean surrender to the county facility to await “trial.”
The (reputable- supposedly) Phoenix breeder will not return my calls.
We had a wonderful last week together; picnics, long walks, sleeping together in my bed, minced duck for dinner. He was my second heartbeat and I miss him so desperately. I hope wherever he is he will forgive me for the ultimate betrayal, and understand that I wanted him to be comfortable in my arms when he passed.
It is heartbreaking to read these comments, but what each of you did took enormous love and enormous courage. There are people who cannot face this choice, and they, of necessity, turn their dogs over to rescue, forcing us to face in the choice on their behalf. Some of those dogs we can save, but very, very few. I just hope that we can handle the unplaceable dogs, like Benny, with the same grace and kindness that you handled the final days of your own dogs.
We have received several letters, why didn’t you try this, why didn’t you try that? Please know, that we tried everything that we, as a group of capable caring dog owners with a long history in rescue, could think to try, and then we faced the inevitable conclusion. We could not have put Benny in someone’s home to cause some other person such a misery as you faced in your own dogs’ last days. That’s neither fair nor kind, nor does it guarantee a dog like Benny any kind of a future.
Thank you for your comments. They have taken some of the pain away from that awful decision to let Benny go.
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