So, we rehomed our dog Tommy

You may recall that back in May we took in a dog called Tommy. Well, I came to call him Tom, because that sounded more manly when calling him in the street.

Anyway, the thing with Tom is that he was a total nightmare. Without an enclosed back yard, we had to tie him up whenever he wasn't inside the house. He hated this, and would howl, especially when he saw us in the kitchen.

He wasn't great fun to walk with either. Tom pulled relentlessly, really hard and we first tried a harness, then a Halti. The Halti was good - it sat on his muzzle and pulled his head to the side whenever he pulled too hard. Since dogs have trouble walking properly while looking sideways, they have to slow down. He resisted this with flair - trying to paw it off his nose, or stopping to rub his nose in the grass or struggling to loosen it.

Eventually, he managed to score his nose by messing with the Halti, so I took it off for a while to allow it to heal. During the week or two when he was just on the normal lead, it was hell. He would pull abruptly and ended up injuring my shoulder and hand (never wrap the lead around your hand!).

Because our garden isn't enclosed, it was impossible to let him off the lead to play or teach him games. And we couldn't afford to have it properly fenced. When we tried to let him off the lead in the local forest park, he'd race off, prompting sometimes hours-long search and retrieve missions.

And though I appreciated the exercise, I couldn't persuade anyone in the family to come out walking the dog with me. Yes, we'd fallen into that old trap where everybody claims they'll get involved looking after the family pet and then only one person - me - does.

The Rehoming

In the end, rather than send Tom back to the dog pound, where he'd stand a good chance of being put-down, we opted to try and re-home him. Lisa put an advert on GumTree and we were contacted by a nice couple looking for a companion for their dog.

I agreed to bring Tom round to them - partly to see their dog, and partially because it would be harder for them to turn him down. Yes, I'm a ruthless operator when I have to be! As it turned out, Tom and their dog got on really well. The two mutts chased each other around their nicely fenced in garden and exhausted each other with friendly wrestling. I stayed with them for over an hour while they asked me questions about his history and temperament. They were serious about taking him at least!

And in the end, Tom moved in with the couple that same day. I drove off, and I must say, I wasn't sad about rehoming him. Taking on a dog when my father had been ill in hospital was definitely a bad move. We simply hadn't thought it through. I'm just glad that we got him rehomed and I know as I left his new family that he at least looked exhausted and happy.