Mater Dog!

Okay so I have to post a tribute to our dog that we just got rid of. I will start the story from the beginning so you all don't think I am a heartless dog owner. This goes way back so brace yourselves for a long story. So when Ethan was just a baby I thought that it would be a good idea to get a dog for Brian for Father's day. I went and picked out a brand new lab puppy and brought her home to surprise Brian. She was such a cute little thing and so playful. We kept her for a couple years and decided that we would like to breed her. She was finally out of the puppy stage, you know the chewing, digging, etc. So we decided that we would get a male lab so that we could breed them. Well he was a puppy so we were going to have to wait a while before they could breed. To make a long story short we couldn't handle having another puppy. We had taken on too much. And we also thought that the dogs needed somewhere to run since I wasn't a faithful owner to make sure they got their exercise. (I had 2 kids by this point) So we arranged for Brian's aunt and uncle to take them out on the farm. Well to make a long story short they had puppies and that is where Mater came from. Brian's grandparents had originally taken Mater because their dog was getting old, but Grandma didn't like the actions of a puppy. So Brian felt bad and brought him home. What better are we going to do for this dog? I think he had good intentions of training him and taking him for runs, but let me remind you Brian won't even hardly pick up dog doo. Oh well so we made a house dog out of him which I enjoyed until I had a baby that was on the floor all the time. Then the hair really irritated me and I thought it was disgusting all of the sudden. Oh I also didn't like all the tootsie rolls in my yard because my kids love to be in the yard. YUMMM! So I told Brian we needed to get rid of him or put him out in a kennel. Brian said the kennel wasn't an option so we needed to find a new home for him. So I put an add in the paper and a nice family from here in Ephrata said that they would take him. I was happy and sad at the same time. He was such a good dog but I will admit I am not a "city" dog owner. I would rather have a dog that can do whatever they want out in the country. So Saturday the new owners came by and picked up Mater. He was so excited to ride in the front seat of the pickup, he just climbed right in. Ethan and Cody waved bye to him while we were outside and everything seemed to be okay. Well it was okay until we came inside and Ethan broke down crying. I felt so bad for him. He was so sad. I explained to him all about Mater's new home and even told him that we could go visit him in a couple of months. He seemed better but we still have moments in the day when Ethan will get really quite and say he misses Mater. We told him when we move in the country he can get another dog and that seemed to help. But for now we are glad that Mater has a new home and new doggie friends to play with.

The boys with Mater after we first got him

We love you Mater!