This client had been calling me monthly for the last three or four months, trying desperately to place the Soft-Coated Wheaton he’d saved from the side of the road in suburban Miami just last year.

When they found him he was about a year old, skinny, matted and unneutered. No microchip. No tag. Newspaper announcements and fliers went unanswered or unnoticed.

Then the kids fell in love with him. It was a great story of compassion and falling in love I’m lucky to see repeated over and over again by my warm-hearted clients.

“Lucky” (what else?) was sweet as pie. We neutered him back then. He was a delight in the household, trained and even-keeled. Then one day a few months back he snapped—literally—at a ten year-old friend of one of the kids.

A trainer was hired. And Lucky seemed to be doing great—until another kid almost got his hand bitten off. Lawyers were discussed in the wake of the event.

The parents were worried. They were scared that no matter how hard they tried to confine him or keep him away from children, Lucky might one day seriously hurt another child. They needed to place him.

I suggested PetFinder. No takers—just creepy emails according to his owners.  We tried Wheaton rescues and several no-kill shelters. None would take him when the owners responsibly announced Lucky’s problem to each potential agency. No child-biters allowed. And I can understand that.

Then last week Lucky had another close call. An almost-too-late intervention kept the wandering child from harm after Lucky got out of his “safe place” amid the holiday confusion.

The time had come to make a decision and it wasn’t an easy one. We euthanized him, rubbing his belly as we did so (his favorite thing). After crying a bucket of tears, we bagged him and put him in the freezer we reserve for cremation pickups.

Next up: a litter of healthy mutts found by the roadside in the rural Miami environs. As the world turns...