No judgements from me on your decision. You know the
situation and dogs the best, but I wanted to share my
experience with Murph.

When I got Murph, I knew being a terrier he'd have a lot
of energy, but I guess I expected when he wasn't playing
he'd be all cuddly. Well that just wasn't Murph. He had
things to do and places to explore and only wanted to be
in my lap for very short periods. He was quite a ball of
energy and quite a handful as a pup. I loved him, but we
really didn't have a strong bond. I was however determined
to stick with him and we went to obedience and I really
worked with him, but you really can't change personality with
obedience, only some behaviors.

When he was 6 months old I went and got Maddie and she
fit my personality like a glove. In reality, she's not very
terrier-like. She's calm and will sit in your lap as long as
you want to pet her. Whereas with Murph the world around
him and exploring everything in it was where his focus lied,
with Maddie *I* was her focus. Everything for her, revolved
around me. So we had a very strong bond right from the
beginning. I use to say, Murph was my "Test from God"
and Maddie was my "Gift from God".

I would get a very similar reaction from all my friends and
family about the two also. They all fell in love with Maddie
right away, but Murph, friendly to the nth degree though
he may be, he was just too much of a live wire for everybody.
So they'd tell me, well if anything happens to you, we'll
take Maddie, but we don't want Murph. That just made
me more determined to love the lil' guy that much more.
I was going to accept him for how he was and enjoy the
things he loved to do with him, like hiking and not expect
him to be like Maddie.

Well I don't know when or where it happened over the last
13 years, but somewhere along the way, Murph and I bonded.
I just looked up one day and realized he was being every
bit as devoted and affectionate as Maddie and he was in my heart
every bit as much as Maddie. I don't know, maybe he really
was a Test from God and once I decided to just accept him for
him, the bond was able to form as God was just teaching me
the lesson of acceptance. And as irony would have it, of my
three dogs, he has turned out to be the best behaved and most
congenial. All those people years ago that said they didn't want
Murph, have now done a 180. They say they'll take Murph, but
don't want Maddie, because she has so many health problems.
Personally I wouldn't trade one moment with either Murph or
Maddie. They've both given me 13 of the best years of my life
and have both taught me some very valuable life lessons.

Par...