Who Stays and Who Goes?

Our trip to Tennessee could not have been any better.

Todd, Josh, Jake, Charlie and I, ALL ate too much of all the wrong things, stayed up late, and slept in.  I could have used one more day to top off my inner-gas-tank.  And Todd would have loved one more day to bark at whatever was in the pasture. But I had to be back to work on Tuesday. 

I brought back 4 exhausted dogs that slept the whole way home.

I was just barely home on Monday when I got a call from the SPCA about our foster-kitty Mo that left us about 3 weeks ago.  He and the cat that he was partnered with were not getting along with the dogs in their new home, and the family wanted to return them both.  I was asked if we would take Mo back. Of course I agreed, and I picked him up on Tuesday evening.  I opened the crate, and with no hesitation at all, and a quick sniff from the dogs, Mo was home.  This is the second time a family hasn't worked for Mo, so I'm wondering if fate is trying to tell us that he belongs here with us.  

And speaking of fate....  Before I left on my trip I'd been discussing Jake with the rescue.  He's been available for adoption on the website for about a year.  At about 13 years old, I felt that he should be taken off the "available-dog-list" and stay with us.  The rescue was unwilling to let Jake remain a "foster dog."  I talked to Carl about it, and let the rescue know that we would go ahead and adopt Jake.  I know what you're thinking..... Given how much Jake means to us, we should have decided to do that long before now.  I'm regretting not doing that.  Because literally, out of nowhere a couple applied to adopt Jake.  To say that I was stunned is an understatement.

A whole range of emotions followed because even though the policy of the rescue is to allow foster homes to decide who adopts their foster dogs. I was asked (by the rescue) to put our adopting Jake aside and seriously consider them.  The reasons for their suggestion was because Jake could receive more individual attention than we're able to give him because we're a multi-dog household. For whatever reason, that now has me doubting myself and the care I can and do provide for him, and the other dogs too.

I'd hoped when I was in Tennessee that maybe I'd feel better about the situation, and perhaps letting go of Jake.  And I'd hoped meeting them yesterday would give me that moment of clarity and I would know what to do.  However it didn't.  They are a nice couple and certainly more than able to give Jake a good home.  But just where he will spend the rest of his life, and who will write the final chapter of his life, right now, is a really tough mystery to solve.