By Denise Crane

It seems like a long time ago since I first wrote about Zentry. He was the seventh and most recent entry to the dog pack in our family community and residing at the home of my daughter and her family. Such a sweet, people-pleasing bundle of legs and energy, devoted to his mom, and just wanting some good belly rubs. He came to the household largely oblivious to the fact that two smaller older dogs lived there making him the newcomer. That meant he didn't get to set the rules or the tone, no matter how badly he wanted to. He really just wanted to play, and eat, and get all his mom’s attention. The other dog housemates (Tank and Nugget for those of you who may recall the original dog series from last year) were not enamored of Zentry and did their best to ignore him whenever possible.

The first skirmish occurred in November when, for reasons still unknown, the three dogs got into a skirmish in the backyard because apparently Zentry wanted to play, Tank and Nugget did not, and the little ones were not successful in backing Zen off. Tank ended up at the vet and stayed at our house for a few days to heal. At this point, Tank was openly hostile to Zentry every time they were in the same space. The growling and teeth baring kind of hostile, which seemed to just confuse Zentry. We decided to move Tank from his home with his mom, to our house until we could see if peace could be made. Tank seemed fine with the arrangement except that Courtney has raised Tank from a puppy and he missed her a ton.

We all hoped Zentry would start figuring out dog social cues.

He never did.

Then Nugget went into Zentry’s kennel one evening in search of a small piece of kibble that had eluded Zentry somehow. Zentry took exception to this incursion, and, by the time Courtney was able to free Nugget, there was blood (both Courtney’s and Nugget’s), a dog canine tooth, and shattered nerves. Courtney called us for help, and we raced over. When the tooth was located, blood cleaned up, and Nugget (badly frightened and cowering under a bed), the canines and humans were all pretty shaken up. Courtney ended up at the doctor for a tetanus shot (we still are not 100% sure who bit her during the melee). Nugget ended up with several puncture wounds that had to be stitched, a hole in his mouth where the tooth had been, and a broken jaw that required wiring to repair. He had to wear a muzzle and a cone, could only eat dog food made soft by soaking in liquid all day, and required pain pills and antibiotics to be ground up and fed to him by hand.

We moved Nugget to our house.

Zentry had somehow managed to displace the canine community that previously shared his home and had all his people to himself. In the process however, the people in the community realized that this sweet dog needed to be in a home where he didn’t have to share his humans. After hours of talking, discussing options, considering what was best for all the members of the community, we decided that Zentry would need a new home. The right home. A home where dog social cues weren’t important but where good belly rubs would be.

Breakdown in community is really, really hard.