Wherefore art thou Romeo?

[Shiloh, Victory Joy, Chase (holding Romeo), Alex, Lev -- Jericho was sleeping
but since she's too young to really know Romey anyway I didn't figure it mattered if she was in the picture.]

We've had Romeo for several years now. We took him in when our friends the Pareigat's needed to re-home him. We gave him away once to Steph's sister Carrie at a time when she needed him much more than we did -- and he needed her! When Carrie needed to get rid of all her pets we took Romeo into our home again. Over the last year he's struggled with strange little issues. Last summer he had a couple of seizures and has never really been the same since. In the last couple of months things have gotten worse. We debated over re-homing him to someone without children (one of his issues was being more touchy and snapping at the kids), but in the end decided it would be unfair to expect someone else to deal with the issues he was having. (I'll spare you the details -- they're gross.) This morning, Uncle Bob came and picked up Romeo for one last ride. He'll be heading off to "doggy heaven" sometime later today. The kids are handling it quite well. It sure will be strange not having him around! And, I'll have to sweep my floors much more often... he was great for cleaning up all the crumbs and food the kids dropped. LOL We will miss him, but know that this is the better choice for him.

Good night, good night! parting is such
sweet sorrow,
That I shall say good night till it be morrow.

~From Shakespear's "Romeo & Juliet" Act II Scene II
Juliet to Romeo

Update: My mother in law just couldn't let Uncle Bob put the dog down. She is in the process of trying to find a home for him. Even though it's not what we want for Romeo, there's not much we can do about it at this point. I guess if she's able to find him a loving home where there are no kids in jeopardy of being bitten, and his owners don't mind cleaning up messes and dealing with his dementia...