I saw this after posting above but it would apply to you as well. I feel for anybody that has lost his dog. Will Rogers used to say "If dogs don't go to heaven, I want to go where they go!" I'm sort of that way myself. He also used to say , "If you think you are important, try ordering somebodyelse's dog around!" Also true in my opinion. Bill
What I have learned after practicing veterinary medicine for forty years is that stuff like this happens. If all our bag of tricks worked we would all live forever, but they don't and we don't. Something else I learned is that putting one down is one of the hardest things we will ever have to do... We do it for them! We do not do it for ourselves, because we would keep them forever if we could...We do it for them...It is the last KIND thing we can do for them. We as 'Owners" take their pain and hurt onto our own shoulders and say to them , "I'll hurt and you won't have to anymore." I think of it in a simple way as being what Jesus did for us, because he sacrificed his life to pay our debt of sin. A debt we were unworthy and unable to pay. He did it for us even while we were sinners. He did for us what we were unable to do. He said I will hurt and you won't have to. Maybe that is an oversimplification, but I believe it anyway.
I also learned through having outlived several of my own pets, that when I get another dog, it absolutely does NOT replace the deceased one in my heart! Each of us has an UNLIMITED supply of love to give, and when we give to another, the new will sit side by side in our hearts with the one that has "hunted on ahead of us". If you think about it, try to imagine that the dear departed can see you with the new dog, and he/she is somewhere out there smiling and saying to his pals, "Look there , he's got another pup! See I told you I did my job well! He could not keep me, but he wanted to and he got another one, because he loved me!"
Finally, one of the best things I learned is that the new pup serves as a reminder, every day, of the other dogs you have had or will have in the rest of your life! What a blessing in life I have had with the dogs I have shared my life with. I pity the folks who go through life never having loved nor been loved by, a dog. I am truly sorry every time I read one of these messages when someone has lost their friend, and right now I am shedding a tear with you, my friend, and thinking too of dogs I have known and dogs of my friends and clients. Many were diamonds to me. God bless you and go find another one! There has never been a pup that couldn't squirm up into your lap, lick your face, and not make you feel better! It is my prayer that God will bless you and all those who have lost a dog.
Bill
