The Final Straw

Ryan has a plethora of nicknames. "Mr. Whispers"- the man could not whisper to save his life. He's got this deep voice that just carries AND, on top of that, I think years of drumming has caused him to go a little deaf. "Sniffles"- he likes to smell everything. Even water before he drinks it. His mom says he should have been a detective. "Arnulfo Viciera"- in high school spanish each of the students had to pick a spanish name for themselves and that was his. To this day some people (Lane Shapiro, Garret Lambourne, etc.) still refer to him as Arnulfo. "Mr. Overly-Considerate"- he will go out of his way to be considerate to others, to the point that it's INconsiderate to himself. "Ryoni"- by his parents. "Chubba"- by his grandpa (said quickly with a spanish accent). The list goes on...

A couple of days ago, a piece of straw landed on Mr. Overly-Considerate's back and broke it. The piece of straw was his aunt Jacque (who lives next door) humbly asking us if there was we could keep our dog from barking at 3AM because it was waking up her whole family. The very next day, Oscar was with a new family. 

Although it breaks our hearts, it's for the better. That poor dog has been neglected, and therefore abused, since the day we had Wendy. He hasn't had a single walk or even 10 minutes of human attention in over 4 months! Now he's with a family who loves him. The kind of family where he's PART of the family, where they'll walk him, and cook him egg omelets for breakfast. 

I know this is morbid, but I feel the same way I did when my great-grandma died. When someone young dies, it's devastating. When my great-grandma died, she had been going through dementia, had most limbs amputated, and was in a lot of pain. When she died, I missed her, but it was a happy parting because I knew she could be with her Melvin and her pain would be gone. That is how I feel about giving up Oscar. It hurts, but I know he's in a better place.