Where were all you blogviators when Peanut Allergy Lady wrote Cary?

Dear Letter Writer: tell your husband that the people on Salon explained the situation from the viewpoint of the dog, and told you to do half of the dog walking and let your husband handle the kids during your dog walking shifts. That this was important for the dog. It is important during these bonding moments for you not to be stressed about the kids, or the dog will sense it. Therefore he really needs to be really reliable on handling the kids' every need on the times it's your turn to walk the dog.

Also tell him that the people on Salon stressed a very, very important point: The smell of urine is very, very harmful and painful and cruel for the dog, and must under no circumstances be allowed to persist, because it's very, very bad for the dog, and that you understand that now, and are happy to take the dog for more walks for the bonding experience that is so necessary, while your husband gets Nature's Miracle, the diaper thing, and all those products and thoroughly cleans the smell out of the house permanently, for the sake of the dog.

Your husband has a dog. He loves the dog, and you don't. That's okay. You obviously never really liked the dog (as evidenced by saying the dog "wasn't much of a problem" when you were first married. So you finally found a reason to really dislike the dog - it's incontinence and the time your husband spends caring for it. Well, someday you are going to be old and possibly incontinent. I hope that your husband treats you as well as he treats the dog now. I've lived with incontinent animals (and an incontinent person), and I can assure you that there are worse things than the smell of urine - like knowing that you forced your husband to betray the trust of an animal that he loved. Buy some air freshener's (Lowe's has a wonderful tub style one that comes in vanilla scent and totally absorbs urine odors) and stop complaining. If the dog is as old as you say, you won't have all that long to wait until nature takes it off your hands or your husband is forced to have it put to sleep because of major health issues. Please don't put your own selfish desires ahead of your husbands love for this animal. You may be able to live with the decision of putting the dog down because you don't like the smell, but, I promise you, it will haunt him the rest of his life.

There are a lot of vicious people here, apparently.

This dog is much like a 105 year old human, remember. It probably has very painful arthritis, blurry vision, a difficult time sleeping comfortably, and a host of other age-related aches and pains that it suffers in silence.

The incontinence is likely only due to advanced age - at 12, the dog was already quite old...now it's practically prehistoric. Hopefully they will take the dog to a vet for a qualified assessment as to whether the dog can shoulder on with caring accomodations and enjoy life for a while longer, or if it should be put down as a mercy.

I can understand the LW's feelings, and don't see anything that should prompt such vehemence and vitriol...it sounds like the husband isn't living up to his obligation to the dog, and his spotty care and situational neglect is causing larger problems. She is trying to improve the situation for her family, and asking for help. Why attack her?

She admits that she never cared for the dog very much. Well, some of us just aren't dog lovers, some of us don't automatically love every pet in our orbit, some of us don't see pets as equal to humans. She admits that she feels bad for caring about the inconvenience and bad smell. She admits that she is probably not a dog person, and that she should consider that in the future. How many of us are as honest about ourselves?

Well gee Cynthia, aren't you the Grim Reaper or what? Hell, you sound ready to declare that dog dead and ready for burial, irregardless of how the dog actually feels.

LW may or may not be a dog person, but her husband actually is, and that was his pet, an animal he obviously cares for, and (hold your scythe) an animal who no doubt loves and trusts him. Maybe LW should take that into account. Even if she doesn't, we all assume here that she is a human being, possessed of empathy and sympathy and a conscience. She should take a step back and see what's far more important than an occasional puddle on the floor: a) her husband, whom she loves; b) the dog, whom her husband loves; and c) the dog, who values her own life and wants only to live in peace and happiness with her family (LW's husband, to be exact) like she has her whole life, and who cannot understand why she is suddenly cast aside.

You think I'm reading too much into what this dog thinks? I guess you don't have a dog or, if you do, haven't really gotten to know him or her. Like LW, you aren't taking into account the true victim of this story.

I euthanized my beautiful great dane on saturday. She had lymphoma. I miss her.

My suggestion to the author is to encourage her husband to spend time with his pooch - away from the house and the kids.

Gina S., you are apparently functionally illiterate, as evidenced by your inability to comprehend what the original letter actually said. Your bizarre spelling of the word "bitch" also proves this point.

From the original letter: "I don't feel it is ethical to put a dog to sleep just because you're tired of having it around, but at the same time, I find myself being mildly annoyed at the dog's needs several times a week. The other problem is, I feel guilty about how I feel. This is, after all, another living being, and it isn't her fault that she creates so much work....How can I survive these next few years?

Let me break it down it out for you and some of the others in this thread who also lack the ability to comprehend what they read.

1. "I don't feel it is ethical to put a dog to sleep just because you're tired of having it around" = The letter writer does not believe it is right to kill the dog.

2. "It isn't her fault that she creates so much work" = She has sympathy for the dog.

3. "How can I survive the next few years?" = She intends to let the dog live, but wants help dealing with the annoyance.

Quit using letters to the editor as your own personal rant forum. Instead, try commenting on the original article as it was *actually written*.