We found a little lost puppy who turned out to be deaf, and adopted him. Naming him Chance, he quickly won us over with his gentle and playful temperament - but adding more special needs to our family (while it makes for a great story) was not ultimately sustainable.
You can't tell a deaf dog to get down, off, drop it, come, etc... And since neither my wife or kids had experience with a dog - our loving Chance was a bit of an uncontrollable handful.
We found him a new home with a family that has another dog and some kids, so we feel good about his next family - but within a month's time you can really grow to love a dog!
So now we're collectively grieving through our first loss as a family - remembering the things we loved best, and consolidating the lessons we need to learn before finding our next dog.
Morriah renamed her blanket from "kitty" to "chance", and shed the most tears over him.
We love you Chance, and will never forget you as our best first dog ever!
Lessons learned:
Next dog needs to be:
-gentle
-playful
-small to mid size
-trainable / obedient
-smart
-short fur
We need to be:
-able to give commands and all enforce training
-kids able to help take care of themselves and the dog-past small toys (or at least not leaving them out)
-kids must be bigger than the dog so they can confidently control him (not scream or run if the dog jumps to play)
-free of other pets: Rabbit, (current) Cats... this way there is one pet to worry about, and it has free reign in the house and yards.
-prepared to battle fleas
-ready to attend dog training classes
