You've gotten a lot of good advice here already but I just wanted to add my story. We lost our 15 year old toy poodle in April 2004. I have always considered myself to be a very "strong" person but this really got me down. He was my "first-born" and even if I didn't spend every second of the day with him, I still felt such an emptiness when he was gone. It was expected because of his age and heart condition but that didn't make it any easier to deal with. I thought that the right thing to do was to give it some time and put off finding another pup for a while - just didn't know how long that "while" was supposed to be. Then a good friend of mine told me that if a Yorkie pup was what I wanted, I should go out and find it. She said there is no set rule of grieving time and that each person is different. I shouldn't feel unfaithful to my other dog just because I felt I was ready for a new one. Best advice I could have gotten! I think I just needed someone else to confirm what I felt. I got Tatum about 3 weeks after having to put Dax (the poodle) down. We knew that the new pup would in no way "replace" what we had with Dax but she has given us so much joy in her own way. I'm so glad we did it. Everyone is different in their grieving process so you have to know yourself. I wish you all the best in finding a new baby and am so sorry for your loss.
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~ Angie |