Sigh

After having had a few deep breaths and some good Chinese food, I do feel better.

My husband was concerned that I made him out to be

"some idiot who sits at home drinking beer, watching football and looking over at my trophy dogs once in awhile and saying attaboy."

So to clarify:

He has wanted a husky since childhood. Really really wanted.

When we got married, our first dog was a Springer Spaniel, because that was what I grew up with and what I knew I wanted. She was an angel, perfect in every way. Not a complaint except for the time she ate an entire bag of Hershey's kisses. She loved our kittens, mothered them, even. She never complained about a thing. Three years ago, at the age of 14, when she could no longer walk, hear or see, we had to let her go.

Last fall, when it came time (we felt) to move on and get another dog, my husband really wanted a husky.We talked about it and I felt, in spite of all the warnings we received and research we did, that it was only fair that he get what he wanted this time.

After all, how hard could it be? I was sure we could handle it. We were typically naive first-time husky owners. Don't get me wrong. I'm a dog lover. Until now I have never met a dog I couldn't love or live with. (Well except for the clinically insane one we got from rescue. But they agreed with us that he was insane.)

They are extraordinarily high-maintenance. I can't even tell you. When it got to the point last spring that we couldn't keep up with her energy level and rough play, we decided another husky was the perfect fix.

You can call us stupid, but we really seriously deliberated about it and prayed about it, and felt we were making the right decision.

For awhile it was great - perfect. But then the two of them began to run our lives. Now, we are not altogether unskilled at dog training. We have used a variety of techniques, without much success.

This is my laundry list:

They chew. Everything. Furniture, kids toys, the deck, shoes...
They shed. They shed. They shed. Did I say they shed?
They are dirty. They love dirt. They dig in dirt. They sleep in dirt. Then they come in the house.
They dig in the trash.
They steal food. They will even pull dirty dishes out of the sink so they can lick them.
They dig. For. No. Apparent. Reason.
They escape. We fix their escape route. They escape again. And we have a solidly fenced yard.
They run away. Fast. Far.
They howl. Like a wolf, not like a bloodhound.
They are very vocal. Not like when they see a stranger. They make noise all the time.
They require crating when not supervised in order not to destroy the house. This means two crates (24x24x36 each) in my living room.
Their existence will prevent us from having any other pet in our house (other than our two existing cats that know how to hide.)
No one we know can handle them. Therefore if we want to take a family vacation, we are up a creek.

This is the way my husband sees it:

I love how they greet me at the door
I love that they're so soft and cuddly but at the same time tough
I love that they like to play rough
I love training them to run and follow commands
I love seeing how happy they are when they're running so incredibly fast
I love how they lick the sweat off me when I get home from a bike ride
I love watching them wrestle and wrestling with them
I love how good they are with the kids and how the kids love playing with them
I love the extra security they give us
I love when they jump up on the bed to greet me in the morning on weekends
I love running through the forest up the street with them

I have always believed that keeping dogs in a kennel is generally cruel and unnecessary. But we are seriously considering building one. Otherwise I would probably choose to re-home them.

Maybe I'm just being emotional today, but all the negative points existed before the kitten incident.

I'm not sure what to do. Any suggestions, besides getting rid of them? Anyone know anyone who would want to give a loving home to a couple of huskies? Someone with room to run and tons of patience? They are soul mates, for sure, and I wouldn't want to separate them.

Sigh.