Dog Days

He looks so sweet and innocent, right?

Well, for the most part he is. But right now, he is driving me CRAZY!!
I got Hobby six years ago from the pound. I was a single gal desperately in need of something to do besides work and he was a six week old puppy that had been abandoned. He was the perfect Hobby for me. He has been my "child" for so long. When I got married, Rusty knew that it was a package deal and lovingly accepted him. Ok, sometimes not so lovingly, but they have bonded. No matter what he tells you, Rusty really loves this dog.
He is so sweet. He LOVES people and other animals. He just wants to be as close to you as possible and lick your face- which drives me up the wall. I do love that he is so affectionate though. He has sat in my lap and comforted me during many crying sessions.
I have often felt guilty for the life that he has with us. He has so much energy and I know that he is bored with us. We are gone all day and then just come and sit on the couch. I take him for walks when I can, but I know that it isn't enough. I feel like he should have a family with kids to play with him more and give him more attention. Rusty is afraid that if he leaves before we have kids, I will just be too sad.

So, here is my dilemma:

• Though he was kenneled from the beginning, he decided that he all of a sudden hated the kennel. We came home from dinner one night and he had clawed and bitten his way out of a steel kennel. He was covered in blood, broke his teeth, and could hardly walk because his feet hurt so bad. It was traumatizing to all of us. I took him to the vet and he wrote him a prescription for Valium, but I can't drug my dog every single day!
  
• So, we tried to leave him in the laundry room, with a window, but again, he freaked out. We came home and he had scratched the door to pieces, broken the crown molding, and there was blood all over.
  
• He can jump any gate that we put up to keep him in the kitchen, so I decided to just leave him out in the house with all of the bedroom doors shut. This works pretty well, but we are gone for so long each day that he was occasionally peeing on the carpet. I am a total freak about smells and there is no way that I could be the lady with the house that smells like pee! So, then I hired a dog-walker to come on the days that I walk, but she is $15 for one walk! That really adds up.
  
• A doggie door scares me because I don't want him to come in muddy and lay all over my leather couches.
• I could leave him outside, but it gets so hot during the summer. He will smell so bad that I won't want him to come inside when we get home. Plus, I don't know if he will bark at other dogs or try to dig out.
  
• This week, I was gone all day and there was a big storm. I guess he got scared, though he has never shown signs of fear during a storm before. He was trying to get into our bedroom and scratched the door all up and ripped up the carpet, trying to dig in. (By the way, we are renting our house out next week to a golf pro that is coming to play in the Shell Houston Open. So now he is getting a house with ripped up carpet. Nice, huh? I am sure that he will be so thrilled.) I was going to take a picture of the damage, but I was too busy freaking out and trying to get it cleaned up. We were also hosting guys night for our Sunday school that night and 12 guys were going to show up at my house within the hour.
  
• We went back to the kennel and while he was in the garage with the door open, he did fine. But, last night we tried to leave him in the kennel inside while we went to dinner because I didn't want anything else to happen before the pro comes to stay. We came home and he was trying to get out again, covered in blood.

Aaaahhhhh!!!!!!!! What do I do?

Just when I was ready to find him a new home, I got a frantic call from my friend. She was walking her dog in our neighborhood this morning and the dog just collapsed. Her husband was far away, so she called me to come get her. I got there within a minute, but sweet Daphne was already gone. We loaded her into my car and rushed her to the vet- just in case, but they confirmed that she was dead. It was so heartbreaking to watch our friends say goodbye to their "baby" of 11 years. I came home and felt guilty for even considering giving him away. Though I wonder if he would be happier with another family, I know that it would make me so sad to lose him.