Healing After the Death of a Pet

I've had quite an absence here since my last blog posting about "Knowing When It's Time." July 23, 2010, our beautiful Golden Retriever, Autumn, passed on to the Rainbow Bridge. Autumn died of a rare form of cancer, bile ductular carcinoma. I won't share with you her signs and symptoms, but I suspected cancer even before the vet did.

Some of us are so in tune with our pets, just as we are with our own children. Making the decision to have Autumn put to sleep was heartbreaking and, of course, extremely difficult. We kept waiting for Autumn to "let us know" when it was time, and she definitely did. She was such a sweet soul and is terribly missed. Are we completely healed from our grief? No. Does one ever heal from the death of a pet? I don't think so.

What do you do when your pet dies, after you crawl into a ball and sob for however many days, weeks, and months (years?) you need to in order to grieve? My feeling is you try to open your heart again, as soon as you can, to another furry friend. There are so many wonderful, needy animals in this world that are waiting to be loved, waiting to go to their Forever Home, waiting to open their hearts to YOU.

On Halloween, my least favorite holiday, we brought home Heidi, born on 9/8/10. We had not really been looking for another dog. Some of you know how it is: It happens when "it's time."

We are enjoying opening our hearts again to another furry family member, laughing over her puppy antics, and watching this little spirit grow into another sweet Golden Retriever with a completely different personality than I've ever experienced with any dog my whole life.

Meet Heidi, the dog who is helping all of us in this household heal. We think Autumn would approve and would love her just as much as we do. I'll never view Halloween the same way, thanks to Heidi. It's a special day for me now.