The IDO Dog Park in the Sky

Sorry man. It sucks. Dogs are one of life’s simplest joys.

It’s so hard, I feel for you. Lost both parents and my younger brother .. and our 15 year old family dog… all inside one year. Say what you want about animals.. but my kids sobbed as hard or harder for our great dog than they did any human. And rightly so…

… got a candle lit for you and your pooch tonight. You had that great animal for awhile for an important reason and will never forget.

So sorry for your loss.

Pool2fool’s post got me thinking. The update is I am just now feeling normal. I thought I was feeling normal for the last month, but the last week or so I feel a weight has been lifted and I feel much better mentally and physically. The whole dynamic of the house has changed, not better, not worse, just changed. It’s the hole she has left that can never be filled.

My wife has always slept hugging a pillow, so I had a pillow made with one of the images of Athena sleeping. We also had a painting done of her at PaintYourLife.com and it turned out perfect. If you have ever thought of a portrait of your pet of close relative, you might want to check them out. The price is lower than you would think and you can find coupon codes too.

One thing we kept secret is that we did get a puppy right away. One of the reasons is we, I should say I, didn’t want people to judge us. I would normally have waited and I know that they suggest you should wait, but I was more concerned with my wife and our other dog. I long time ago my wife said she didn’t know what she would do when we lost her. We knew we weren’t doing it to replace her or try and bury the grieving. We did it to give us a little positivity though the healing.

Now I know we made the right decision. She has added a lot of light to our life while we coped with our loss. And she’s been amazingly good, house trained from day one and sleeps through the night in a pen. Even Apollo has lost a little weight from all the playing.

She absolutely loves Tuffy, although being blind Tuffy doesn’t interact with her a whole lot, but he is very patient.

I can look back now and remember the good times without all the questioning and just appreciate the time we had.

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^Liked.

I had to put my boy Sam down a week ago on Saturday. When I got him I was thinking when the time came I could be this big tough guy and do it myself. But 12 years later a lot of things changed, and I put it off probably longer than I should, because I could not stand the fact that he would not be there when I came home. It was easily the hardest thing I have personally had to do.

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Sorry for your loss Hop. Another good boy joins the IDO dog park in the sky.

hop307 wrote:

I put it off probably longer than I should

I bet Sam would say you had good timing. That is the other hard part that one’s mind runs through so many questions and scenarios afterward. It’s just part of coping I guess.

Sorry for the both of you , sad times.

catmando wrote:

Sorry for the both of you , sad times.

Thanks I appreciate it, but I am good now. My memories are now all celebrations.

If anyone is interested
https://www.paintyourlife.com/

Just saw this in my inbox too.

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Sorry to hear that hop307, hang in there. I agree with Pug, I’m sure Sam appreciated every minute he had with you.

Pug — Thanks for posting that update, definitely encouraging to hear.

We have an old blind dog, The King, and a young scrappy one, Pickle. Pick had really started to team up with the cat and the 2 of them would wrestle and play a lot and take naps together, etc, because the King isn’t much of a playmate anymore. I can definitely see that Pick misses her friend. We’ve been playing a lot of fetch these last few days.

I honestly don’t know how Tuffy does it. He’s been through a lot, but keeps going at 15. He has developed some issues urinating not long after Athena and he has developed a bad case of arthritis.

Physically these last 5 months have been hard because I am a deep sleeper who can sleep through a house burning around him. But with the dog issues I have been awaken 2-3 times a night sometimes. More so with Tuffy now who has to go outside and who sometimes gets confused in the dark. But also with Athena because when Tuffy started wondering around I didn’t want him to step on her because they used the same beds.