DAY ELEVEN - THURSDAY, JULY 23, 2009

Claudia had talked to Jamie, who had previously worked with the Humane Society, the night before and found out that Buddy did not have to be taken to the shelter when Mike had captured him. He could have originally been released to her, and the shelter notified that she had the dog in case its owner(s) came looking for him. She emailed Steven Singley of County Counsel and provided this information to him. He told her he would forward this information to the person who was deciding the fate of the dog and thanked her.

We spent most of the day Thursday, waiting in anticipation for an answer. Finally, at 4:05 p.m., Claudia emailed me and said, "Brian Cronin just visited me and the decision was made. The dog will be put to sleep." I couldn't believe it! I wrote back to her, "They kept us waiting for two days, just to tell us "No"?" I asked her what their reason was. She wrote back and said, "Still being sued and a release will not be done." So we were once again given more false hopes. I couldn't believe it.

Claudia asked me to call Connie and let her know and I said I would. I asked her if she wanted to go feed Buddy that night. I told her it'd be hard, but we still needed to feed him in case he wasn't eating. She wrote back that she didn't think she could at that point. She then asked me to call and find out when they were going to euthanize Buddy.

I called the Shelter and the person I spoke to told me, "Um....there's a possible adopter and we're working on getting him out of here, so he doesn't have a date." I told Claudia what I was told, and she wrote back that they obviously didn't know what was going on and asked me to call again. I called back and this time explained that I had been the "possible adopter" and have now been informed that the dog would be put down. I asked when this was going to happen. I was told to hold on, and after about thirty seconds, Greg Beck came on the line. I asked him, "Greg, when is Buddy going to be put down?" He simply said, "Tomorrow morning." I said, "Okay, thank you."

I again asked Claudia if she wanted to go feed Buddy, and we both agreed that we should in case he wasn't eating. I met her shortly after 5:00, and we both were very upset at this point. I was on my motorcycle so I parked it and got into her car with her. We both just sat for a while, fighting tears that we couldn't stop from coming. Claudia then told me, "I know we should go feed him, but I just can't." I hated to agree with her, but I felt the same way also. I was definitely too upset to get on a motorcycle and drive to the shelter at this time.

We made a couple phone calls to a couple different people about the matter, and afterwards, it was after 6:00, too late to head to the shelter anyway. We both decided we had better head home and go give our "kids" there a much needed hug. There was nothing more we could do about Buddy. I felt terrible that we hadn't gone to feed him, but I thought he'd somehow understand also and would perhaps settle for eating his dry dog food that night. I fought tears all the way home that night. When I got home, I hugged my three dogs tightly and told them how lucky they were. Of course, they responded with tail wags and kisses. If only we had the opportunity to see such a response from Buddy.........just once.