You rehomed Murphy for the very very best of reasons, so well done.
Diane, who is absolutely wonderful.
Couldn't agree more
Anyway, to finish the story off - there are worse things than rehoming. Poor Alfie jumped from the frying pan into the fire. At the time Alfie came we had another cocker, Mollie, whom we'd had for a few years and, although she'd lived with our old lab amicably for all that time, she took a dislike to Alfie. Unfortunately, poor Mollie (a private rehome) had had a poor start in life and, while lovable, was a damaged little girl. She became more and more stressed and unhappy and took it out on Alfie and the fights ended up being serious. We had a very good behaviourist in, but the downward spiral continued and even Mike realised things couldn't go on as they were. We thought it would be unfair to rehome Alfie yet again for simply being a good dog and Mike hoped Mollie would do OK in a home where she'd be an only dog, so DGCR (where I volunteer) took her in. As I had feared, she failed all her temperament assessments because of her aggression towards humans and it was decided that she was too unsafe to rehome. So after living with her for 5 years we had her PTS. Our scars have faded now and I realise this is not a decision everyone could make (and I hope they'd never have to), but it was the right decision for us.
So we all have our woes, but on to the happy ending. After 6 months or so Mike got over never wanting another dog after Mollie, and we got Genie via Nicola (who is almost as wonderful as me) and Hearing Dogs. That was a year or so ago and Genie and Alfie are the best of pals, though Genie's first love will always be our cat. So far we're living happily ever after and all 3 are cuddled up on the sofa as I type.
