This is a powerful, vulnerable, incredibly honest essay, Sarah. As a dog lover, and dog walker by profession, I felt compassion for your complex journey with Raylan. I'm imagining that most of the judgmental comments you received were online and on social media. A lot of people there think they know what's best for other people.
It's hard not to anthropomorphize. From my view, you made the right decision for both you and Raylan. A change of scenery, where familiar triggers are not around every bend, can do wonders.
I hadn't thought about the increase in dog ownership for Millennials and GenZ, and how dogs, for many, have become defacto kids. That could be an interesting article itself!
I don't know if this helps at all, but dogs are resilient and are much quicker to adapt than most humans to new life situations. Thanks for sharing this.
I’ll be honest, before reading this, I was one of the folks like you described, that would have confidently said that there’s no excuse for ever rehoming a dog - I now think there are still very few, but I do indeed think you and Raylan had a compelling one. I so sincerely admire the lengths you went to in efforts to improve Raylan’s quality of life and his chances of staying with you, and appreciate the amount of sacrifice that must’ve taken for years on your part. I also just scientifically agree that it sounds like he may have just had one of those brains that are damaged goods from the start, and I admire the amount of medical attention you provided for him to help him as best you could adjust to the world with the brain he was given. Not that my opinion matters a bit, but it sounds to me that you made the best decision for you and for Raylan, and a very, very hard one to make. It takes a lot of courage, and costs a lot of sorrow, sometimes, to make the right decisions such as these. I’m thinking of you as you mourn the loss of his presence in your life, but I do hope you soon gain an increased quality of life, and peace knowing you did right by Raylan, which to me it sounds like you did. And dogs tend to adjust easier than us humans, anyways, so I’ll be rooting for him in his next adventure.
This is a powerful, vulnerable, incredibly honest essay, Sarah. As a dog lover, and dog walker by profession, I felt compassion for your complex journey with Raylan. I'm imagining that most of the judgmental comments you received were online and on social media. A lot of people there think they know what's best for other people.
It's hard not to anthropomorphize. From my view, you made the right decision for both you and Raylan. A change of scenery, where familiar triggers are not around every bend, can do wonders.
I hadn't thought about the increase in dog ownership for Millennials and GenZ, and how dogs, for many, have become defacto kids. That could be an interesting article itself!
I don't know if this helps at all, but dogs are resilient and are much quicker to adapt than most humans to new life situations. Thanks for sharing this.
I’ll be honest, before reading this, I was one of the folks like you described, that would have confidently said that there’s no excuse for ever rehoming a dog - I now think there are still very few, but I do indeed think you and Raylan had a compelling one. I so sincerely admire the lengths you went to in efforts to improve Raylan’s quality of life and his chances of staying with you, and appreciate the amount of sacrifice that must’ve taken for years on your part. I also just scientifically agree that it sounds like he may have just had one of those brains that are damaged goods from the start, and I admire the amount of medical attention you provided for him to help him as best you could adjust to the world with the brain he was given. Not that my opinion matters a bit, but it sounds to me that you made the best decision for you and for Raylan, and a very, very hard one to make. It takes a lot of courage, and costs a lot of sorrow, sometimes, to make the right decisions such as these. I’m thinking of you as you mourn the loss of his presence in your life, but I do hope you soon gain an increased quality of life, and peace knowing you did right by Raylan, which to me it sounds like you did. And dogs tend to adjust easier than us humans, anyways, so I’ll be rooting for him in his next adventure.