An update on Riley for those in my community who like to know. #EndTweetThreads


Many in my community like to know what's happening with Riley and even those outside of it sometimes like to know cause of all the photos of him I spam. :) First off: Don't worry, his health is fine.

As many know, I share Riley with my ex who I adopted him with. We each have him for two weeks and it's worked well since 2017. But something's changed. My ex's new boyfriend already had a dog when they met, a Doberman. Riley got along with her fine but they didn't pay much attention to each other. They now live together and recently, adopted another Doberman, not a puppy but a younger one. To all of our surprise, she and Riley bonded almost immediately and have quickly become best friends. They play together constantly all day in the woods behind their house and even snooze together.

Since this happened, Riley's started enjoying his time with me less and less. The last couple of times I had him, all he wanted to do was sleep or mope on his bed in my office. I can't get him to play any more and when I can convince him to go for walks, all he does is slowly trudge behind me. He also constantly whines for the first couple of days I have him. It's obvious that he's unhappy and I know why. He's sad and depressed because he misses his friend. Worse yet, because he's so idle when he's with me now, it causes his hip dysplasia to act up.

The other day, he didn't come running to greet me when I got home, he just stayed lying on his bed. That's literally the first time it's ever happened and it made me cry. And I'm not a crier.

Seeing him sad like this also makes me sad. I've raised him since he was 8 weeks old and the last thing I want to do is contribute to any unhappiness for him. I've racked my brain about what to do for weeks and have no solution. I don't have a yard for him to play in and don't have the space or money or time to get another dog of my own.

So, I've made the very hard decision to give him to my ex mostly full-time. For now, I'm going to see him for a weekend or two a month, where I'll be focusing entirely on him and doing the things he loves to do. This will get easier once winter ends. My ex has been very reasonable about this and has thanked me for putting his interests first. She said we can adjust the arrangement any time I want so this isn't the be all, end all arrangement. This situation isn't at all fair to me but it's also not her fault. None of us expected this.

I'm more than a little heartbroken right now. Riley has been my Puppy Bro through a lot of very difficult times over the years. I wouldn't trade my time with him for anything but I also would never dream of making him feel bad and keeping him away from his friend just because I don't want things to change. This is one of the hardest decisions I've made in recent memory but I do think it's best for him.

I'm going to keep doing streams and whatnot because it helps lift up my my mood but if you know me personally and wonder why I'm down the next while, now you know. Combining this with still coming off my anti-depressants and yeah, it's not fun. But Riley will continue to be some part of my life and hopefully, maybe he can get a bit more used to this and I can have him back more soon.

Thanks for reading.

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