"Rhino is a good dog and he loves cuddles [...] Please tell Rhino that I love and miss him every night," the note reads.
Goodbyes are never easy, but this young girl sought to ease her pain by penning a note to the future owners of her family’s dog as they prepared to hand him over to the shelter.
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The emotional letter came as a family with four young kids came to the Humane Society of Utah last week to turn over Rhino Lightning, a 3-year-old boxer, who was playing too roughly with the kids.
"The family still loved him, that’s what was so hard,” Deann Shepherd of the Humane Society of Utah told InsideEdition.com.
“Boxers just don’t really know their own size when they’re moving their body around,” Shepherd explained. “They said he’s a great dog, but it was too much. He was knocking the young kids over.”
To make sure Rhino Lightning went to a good home, the family’s youngest daughter wrote a letter in a spiral notebook addressed to his future owners:
“Rhino is a good dog and he loves cuddles. [J]ust don’t tease him with treats, he will start to bark like crazy. Then you have to [j]ust try and calm him with any [tennis] balls. He rips those apart in one day. But if you get him a green nerf ball he can’t tore that apart. His […] name is Rhino [Lightening] then your last name. Please don’t rename him. Rhino is a striped dream. His [cheeks] make a lot of [slobber]. Please tell Rhino that I love and miss him every night.”
Shepherd explained it was important for their shelter to make the family comfortable making the difficult decision to give up their pet.
"We don't want the dog to stay in a situation that's not perfect," she said. "We want to be sympathetic to the family who relinquished him. It's heartbreaking. We're hoping maybe one day, the family can adopt another pet that's a better fit."
And, although Rhino didn't quite fit in with the little girl's family, Shepherd said they are already well on their way to finding a new home for the beloved boxer.
