[lisaly]

I am so very sorry about the loss of your precious Lexi. I understand the pain you are feeling and the depth of your loss. We lost our baby, Ashley, four months ago right before her seventeenth birthday. She had a long and wonderful life, but nothing could have prepared us for life without her. I know how lost you are and the feeling of not knowing how to live without your little girl. No other baby will ever replace Lexi, but that's a good thing. Lexi will always be in your heart. I know from losing Ashley's sister, Jolie, that passed away not long before we got Ashley, and also Ashley's sisters Kiwi and Gracie, that we raised with her, you will love another baby. I didn't think it was possible to love another little one like Jolie, and then I got Ashley, Kiwi, and Gracie and I fell hopelessly in love. They are all at the Rainbow Bridge, and I know as soon as I can, I will welcome another baby into our home and our hearts. You need to do what feels right for you. It won't take away your love for Lexi or replace her, but a new baby will give you a reason to smile and might help to ease the grief you are feeling. I pasted a poem that I read a long time ago when Kiwi passed away that I found helpful, and when Ashley passed away in June, a close friend of mine sent me the following youtube video. It really helped me, and I hope you find it comforting too. My heart and prayers are with you.

Living Love

If you ever love an animal, there are three days in your life you will always remember...

The first is a day, blessed with happiness, when you bring home your young new friend. You may have spent weeks deciding on a breed. You may have asked numerous opinions of many vets, or done long research in finding a breeder. Or, perhaps in a fleeting moment, you may have just chosen that silly looking mutt in a shelter--simple because something in its eyes reached your heart. But when you bring that chosen pet home, and watch it explore, and claim its special place in your hall or front room--and when you feel it brush against you for the first time--it instills a feeling of pure love you will carry with you through the many years to come.

The second day will occur eight or nine or ten years later. It will be a day like any other. Routine and unexceptional. But, for a surprising instant, you will look at your longtime friend and see age where you once saw youth. You will see slow deliberate steps where you once saw energy. And you will see sleep where you once saw activity. So you will begin to adjust your friend's diet--and you may add a pill or two to her food. And you may feel a growing fear deep within yourself, which bodes of a coming emptiness. And you will feel this uneasy feeling, on and off, until the third day finally arrives.

And on this day--if your friend and God have not decided for you, then you will be faced with making a decision of your own--on behalf of your lifelong friend, and with the guidance of your own deepest Spirit. But whichever way your friend eventually leaves you---you will feel as alone as a single star in the dark night.

If you are wise, you will let the tears flow as freely and as often as they must. And if you are typical, you will find that not many in your circle of family or friends will be able to understand your grief, or comfort you.

But if you are true to the love of the pet you cherished through the many joy-filled years, you may find that a soul--a bit smaller in size than your own---seems to walk with you, at times, during the lonely days to come. And at moments when you least expect anything out of the ordinary to happen, you may feel something brush against your leg--very very lightly.

And looking down at the place where your dear, perhaps dearest, friend used to lay---you will remember those three significant days. The memory will most likely be painful, and leave an ache in your heart---As time passes the ache will come and go as it has a life of its own. You will both reject it and embrace it, and it may confuse you. If you reject it, it will depress you. If you embrace it, it will deepen you. Either way, it will still be an ache.

But there will be, I assure you, a fourth day when---along with the memory of your pet---and piercing through the heaviness in your heart---there will come a realization that belongs only to you. It will be as unique and strong as our relationship with each animal we have loved, and lost. This realization takes the form of a Living Love---like the heavenly scent of a rose that remains after the petals have wilted, this Love will remain and grow--and be there for us to remember. It is a love we have earned. It is the legacy our pets leave us when they go. And it is a gift we may keep with us as long as we live. It is a Love which is ours alone. And until we ourselves leave, perhaps to join our Beloved Pets--it is a Love that we will always possess.

-Written by Martin Scot Kosins

YouTube - Saying Goodbye - Loss of a pet