He would go back to living with my parents and the other two dogs. The only issue being that he's grown accustomed to living with us and the way he's pampered up here, which means the other two dogs just annoy him now. Plus there are a lot of quirks he has now that he never had when he was living with my parents while I was at college.
Whenever we're going to be out of the house for more than a couple hours we usually leave him with my parents now, and if we took him he'd be home alone for 6-8 hours during the school week. Granted, we would be close by and have a fairly long lunch break to go home and check on him and let him out, but we think it would just be too many hours alone and unmonitored. Our big issue about bringing him is all the time we'll be at school when he could go through a coughing fit, have a seizure, or have his heart simply fail and we wouldn't be there. Whereas, if we leave him home he'll almost always have someone around, but will the stress and depression of us leaving him cause his health to deteriorate? We think he'll be fine since he's going back to a place and people he used to live with, but at the same time we know he likes us better.
Sometimes you just have to do what is better for the pup even if it breaks your heart. He will be better served not left alone, specially, if he is in a vulnerable state.
From my experience; I was at my ex mother in-law's house chopping and stacking firewood a couple of years ago and this fellow starts hanging around. Very very emaciated, not neutered, friendly as can be and I fell in love with him immediately. Long story short I ended up adopting him and he pretty much became my shadow. Would even follow me into the shower, literally poking his head through the curtain. When I divorced my ex, I ended up leaving him at the ex mother in-law's, since he was familiar with the place, people and other dogs. He as been very happy there and now shadows my ex mother in-law. Whenever I visit, he completely forgets her or the fact that I abandoned him (to be on the road) and reverts back to old times. We play and he sleeps at my feet like I never left. Breaks my heart to say bye to him every time.
Here is the first encounter with Kismet (Hindi for destiny/fate),
Starting to get comfortable around Rocket Man,
Neutered, treated for Lyme, and given clean bill of health, (cone of shame had made him very sad)
Oh yeah, the comfort level is really kicking in now. You can just see the disgust in Riley's face,
Happy family in my home office, not letting me post on AH, going clockwise, Kismet, Riley, Rocket Man, Vega Monster,
Ah! No place like home
,
I'm getting emotional just remembering these times.
