Opening Your Heart to a New Dog After Losing One
Last week I wrote about putting to sleep my very lame old girl, Jazzy, and I was deeply touched by how many people expressed their condolences. I was moved by the many people who shared their own stories of heartache in making that loving decision to help over the Rainbow Bridge an old dog compromised by pain and immobility, whose good days of running with their ears flapping in the wind were far in the past.
When my own amazingly special 7-year-old Weimaraner Teddy (whom I re-homed from a horrible situation when he was 7 months old) had a horrible week-long death from liver cancer, I thought I would never recover from the anguish of his prolonged death — he had 7 great years followed by 7 dreadful days, and I couldn’t bear it. But within weeks I found myself driving down to Virginia Beach from Vermont to pick up Maisie, a 9-month-old Blue Weimaraner from the rescue down there. So you really never know when your heart will be ready, and it’s not a function of how much you loved the one who has left you. This was proven by the fact that my friend Donna Spector — who is Halo’s veterinary consultant — needed a full year to be emotionally ready for another dog after she lost her dear old “bestie.”
“I just feel it was meant to be. The timing was everything: I was at the clinic on this one day — they needed one more home for a puppy. For months my husband and I had been talking about getting a new dog this spring and I had been agonizing over getting a puppy vs. adopting a rescue dog, worried about training and safety issues with my children (who are all very young). And this little girl walked into my life! The next dog we’ll all go together as a family and adopt.”
I want to be the first to send out a big shout-out to Gabby in Chicago. I know she will have an incredible life with Dr. Donna — who will have an incredible life with her, too. And it’s easier not to think about the end from the beginning, when we are marveling at the simply pure love and joy our pets offer us.
—Tracie Hotchner
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