Death threats from dog people
I need to vent because I feel like I'm going insane! Also, because it's so socially unacceptable to voice ANY negatives about a dog, its actually now growing a rage inside of me the more I'm forced to just "grin and bear" this.
It's a long story but basically my mum is a Support Worker, one of her clients abandoned her dog (10yr old Staffy), moved interstate, and left the dog in the backyard. The company my mum worked for left the dog in the backyard for 2 weeks and eventually planned to take him to the shelter. Every single dog person we knew was telling us non stop that we MUST go get that poor dog and find it a home otherwise if he goes to the shelter it'll be the end for him because of his age. We eventually caved in and decided we will get him and it'll be super short term and we'll find him a new home. Holy shit was that THE worst decision ever!
This dog is not trained at all! I've grown up with cats so I know absolutely nothing about dogs other than the time a dog brutally attacked my cat and left him for near dead. Hence why taking this dog was a HUGE deal for us given our past (not that this was at all a good enough reason for all the dog people).
I cannot believe how needy this dog is! Its honestly repulsive, not cute, not funny, actually the most annoying, overstimulating thing ever. He stinks, all the time, no matter how often he is bathed. He barks non-stop, and mainly to piss me off, I'm dead serious, he cannot stand my mum not being home and frets instantly and then needs to be able to have a visual line of sight on me at ALL times while she is gone or he will go around to ever window around the house barking to get my attention, and I mean a piercing LOUD bark. I work from home and its become a nightmare, I have literally ran around my house like a headless chicken mid meetings, mid phone calls and mid stressful work tasks to try shut this dog up to the point of completel overwhelm where I have sat on the ground almost in tears because I can't take it anymore.
It has been 3 years now.. 3 years of hell.. all of the people who pressured us into doing this have vanished and can't help at all.. re-homing him has become impossible, rescues won't take him and people are put off by his size (30kgs), the kicker in it all, I ended up calling the shelter and they won't take him because he's reactive to other dogs 🙃 so all of this guilt from all of the dog lovers about the dreaded shelter only to find out nope that would have never happened anyway and we have royally f#%ked ourselves.
I have now spent $1k to see an allergist to be told I have severe dog allergies, I'm on steroids, sprays and antihistamines daily. From the time he moved in I have progressively been an itchy, swollen and painful mess. I decided this cannot go on after seeing the allergist and that I am going to try re-home him again. I posted him on Gumtree the other day (I think Australian equivalent to Craigslist) and I received countless horrible messages including death threats for putting a 13yr old Staffy on Gumtree and that I should just continue to take medication daily (which give me great side effects btw) because this dog who I was trying to help out of a bad situation is now my problem and even worse, I'm the bad guy for not just keeping him. Doesn't matter that I am physically uncomfortable daily, doesn't matter that I've spent thousand's on this dog to have his skin cancers removed, doesn't matter that I feed him, keep him well looked after, have him professionally groomed every month.. no, to the dog people thats not good enough! These people are actually crazy! Treating me worse than the bloody person who abandoned him in the first place!
All I genuinely came here to say and vent is that I AM NOT A DOG PERSON AND I HATE DOG PEOPLE.. it's honestly freeing to say especially because I know an angry mob would come for me if I ever said that around anyone, so it's really nice to have a space to be able to say it.
I will find this dog a home, I will have a sh*t free backyard, I will be able to open the window and have fresh air instead of horrible dog stench, I will be free from being constantly watched and barked at, I will not have to spend my money anymore, I will be able to not be itchy and swollen and uncomfortable every single day.
The day cannot come soon enough 🙏