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.
