Goodbye, Harrison

I say this with a heavy heart and an even heavier conscience, but Joe and I have decided that Harrison needs to go back to the shelter. We have toyed with the idea for a couple of weeks now and it's finally time. He is so wonderful when we're home. Obedient, loving, and so sweet.. but we just cannot handle is separation anxiety any longer. In the grand scheme of things he is by far not the worse case scenario of dogs with this anxiety but for our small apartment, it is too much. We actually videotaped him on Saturday when we went to lunch and did some shopping. What we saw made us finally decide to do what is best for him. He spend 2 1/2 hours roaming, whining, pawing and biting at the door, and ripping the rubber off the bottom of the door. With me starting work soon, he would be left alone much more than he is now and we DID try several things before deciding to call it quits. Puzzle toys, bones, long walks before we leave, trying to get him to be alone when we're home, leaving the tv on, Thundershirt, and I called the help hotline a couple of times. After we were referred to a specialist that cost $300-500 for a visit, we realized that was not an option. He deserves better and obviously needs something we are not giving him. We think he would be much better off with a yard to distract him during the day and with a family that was home almost all of the time. We love him and we will miss him but in the end we need to do what is best for him and for us. Tomorrow is going to be hard, but we will all get through it and in the end it's what needs to be done. I'm sure I'll cry .... I already have several times!