SIMC—Goodbye Wyatt

**If you haven’t ever visited Unknown Mami, especially for Sundays in My City, get over there right now! That’s an order!!**

A couple of months ago, my dog-loving husband found a stray dog over at his school. He was worried about the tiny little dog because there are a lot of pit bulls in the neighborhood. So he looked at me with those beautiful brown eyes and asked if he could bring him home. Even if it was just to find him a safe home.

I said yes.

So he brought him home and he fit right in. The kids named him; we gave him a much needed bath, we gave him a trim so he could see and we promptly fell in love with him.

He was cuddly, he was quiet, he was a great walker, he was house trained, he got along with the other dogs. For the past 2 months, he’s remained right by my feet every minute of the day when he’s not outside.

But about 3 weeks after we brought him home, we went camping and we took the dogs. Wyatt was on the steps to the camper and Matthew tried to pick him up to move him. Wyatt bit him on the stomach. We thought, well, Matthew was trying to pick him up and he probably got scared and that’s why he bit him.

Fast forward two weeks later and Gabe is sitting on the kitchen floor getting ready to go to school. Wyatt has his lunch box and Gabe says “Wyatt, give me that!” and grabs it from him. Wyatt bites Gabe in the upper thigh and then again on the arm. This was much worse than Matthew’s bite.

But again, we said “Well, he was protecting his food/toy and got scared or territorial”. Gabe was upset but didn’t blame Wyatt.

Then a week after that, Wyatt bit Olivia on the ankle for no apparent reason. Maybe she got too close, maybe she accidentally stepped on his paw…but we just can’t have that. So we decided to try and find him a home without kids.

No luck.

So we called a rescue agency around here to get the ball rolling. While we were waiting for a foster home for him, he bit one of Gabe’s buddies. Now this child did grab him, not in a mean way, but in a playful way, but he bit him on the arm and the leg. Luckily, his family is a dog family and they were completely understanding.

But still. We just can’t have this dog. As much as we love him and think he’s a good dog in so many ways, we can’t have a dog that routinely bites kids.

So today I’ll be surrending him to the rescue agency. I’m taking him by myself and it will be hard. The kids are very sad but understand. I think Matt is the most upset. But at least we know he will be in a good home with grown-ups and will have a good life.

We will miss you Quiet Wyatt Burp Junior.