{"id":2016,"date":"2014-11-20T02:53:00","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T02:53:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2016"},"modified":"2026-10-02T01:35:30","modified_gmt":"2026-10-02T01:35:30","slug":"bye-buddy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/?p=2016","title":{"rendered":"BYE, BUDDY…"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Buddy the Dog’s time has expired. \u00a0Don’t worry – he’s not dead. (By the grace of God and the strength of my willpower and the fact there was never a blunt object available when I needed one.) \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

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I am joking, of course. \u00a0I am not the type to harm a dumb animal.\u00a0When I think of how incredibly cute Buddy was as a puppy, I kind of miss him. (The puppy. \u00a0I miss the cute puppy.)<\/p>\n\n\n

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And when I think of how excited Sarah was to receive Buddy for her birthday last January, it makes my heart ache to have sent him away.<\/p>\n\n\n

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He was the very center of her 7th birthday party.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In those early days, there seemed to be an unspoken promise of years of loyalty and togetherness.<\/p>\n\n\n

But that “promise” went unfulfilled. \u00a0More recently, puppy cuteness was replaced by Buddy’s unbridled enthusiasm … for doing whatever Buddy <\/i>wanted to do.\u00a0He seemed to lack the loyalty gene. \u00a0As well as whatever DNA governs intelligence.When Buddy slept, he was a good dog. \u00a0When Buddy was awake, he demanded constant attention. Here, for example, we are having a family moment while opening a care package from Grandma Gross. \u00a0Caleb is involuntarily “playing” with Buddy.<\/p>\n\n\n

Buddy did a lot of barking, especially since we returned to Haiti in August. \u00a0Often he barked just to hear his own voice. \u00a0Sometimes he barked to helpfully let us know that there was movement somewhere on the 30 acres of mission grounds. \u00a0Roughly 18 hours of each day he barked. Or whined. \u00a0 Or … and this is something he invented … he whine-barked.\u00a0He whine-barked because he was unhappy about being tied to a dog run. But there was no other option. \u00a0If Buddy had just proven to be annoying and needy, that might have been tolerable in the long run. \u00a0He was still technically a puppy, after all.\u00a0But there were bigger problems. \u00a0When we returned after a summer away, we found Buddy quite used to being free as a bird and the mission’s night guardsmen quite fearful of Buddy. \u00a0While they made their rounds, he would chase after them threateningly and, in return, they would fend him off with rocks and sticks. \u00a0A few times, the men had managed to land a blow to his hide and a few times Buddy had gotten close enough to sink his teeth into a leg.So for the last 5 or 6 weeks, Buddy was either inside (which caused him to pout like a teenager with an unfair curfew) or tied up on the line outside (where he’d whine-bark to be free).\u00a0Each evening, I ran with him on a leash to tire him out so that he wouldn’t nibble on my toes at 2:00 am for attention. \u00a0I made an effort to introduce him personally to various night guardsmen. \u00a0I punished him when he made threatening moves at strangers and rewarded him when he was friendly.Then, one evening, he slipped out the front door a few steps behind Melissa and within 30 seconds, literally, had charged a slender, innocent Haitian woman 200 feet away at full speed. For her part, she did everything correctly: she stopped in her tracks, stood still and made no threatening moves. \u00a0Buddy savagely tore into her skirt anyway, ripping it and biting her leg several times before we could intervene and pull him away. \u00a0Melissa helped to calm the lady down and gave her a new dress to wear home. \u00a0I turned to the kids and broke the hard news: that was the last straw. \u00a0Buddy was too unpredictable and had to go.There were a few tears and protests, but Melissa and I had made up our minds.So Buddy was allowed to live, but required to do it elsewhere. Fortunately, he was able to go back to his original owner, Johnny, up the mountainside about a mile from our house. \u00a0That’s a safe distance. \u00a0We no longer hear him barking. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n

Peace has been restored to our home and Melissa and I are getting much better sleep. \u00a0(And apparently Buddy has made a name for himself in Johnny’s neighborhood … and Johnny’s mom couldn’t be happier to have him around. \u00a0She no longer fears outsiders disturbing the safety of the house or her family!)\u00a0For our part, we replaced Buddy with a bunny, yet to be named.<\/p>\n\n\n

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A choice I have not regretted one second… The bunny is sweet, quiet, and quite unable to bite anyone’s butt even if he had the inclination.Bye, Buddy. \u00a0We’ll come visit you sometime.Briefly.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Buddy the Dog’s time has expired. \u00a0Don’t worry – he’s not dead. (By the grace of God and the strength of my willpower and the fact there was never a blunt object available when I needed one.) \u00a0 I am joking, of course. \u00a0I am not the type to harm a dumb animal.\u00a0When I think […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2017,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2016","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2016"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2025,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2016\/revisions\/2025"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2017"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2016"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2016"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevegrossblog.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2016"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}