Fill in the blank (_) in the following sentence from the following choices.
Sentence: We decided to adopt the small dog instead of the big dog because the _ seemed harder to take care of.

Choice 1: We decided to adopt the small dog instead of the big dog because the small dog seemed harder to take care of.
Choice 2: We decided to adopt the small dog instead of the big dog because the big dog seemed harder to take care of.
Which of the choices is correct? Respond with only "1" or "2" and no additional text.
2
2.