Bringing a new pet home -
how do you know when you’re ready?

Many people who’ve experienced the grief of losing a pet struggle with the thought of opening their heart to a new animal companion.

 

Some believe their departed critter would not “approve,” but I don’t think animals look at the world that way. They’re not mean or vindictive. They WANT us to be happy, even if that means bringing another pet into our lives. If we sense disapproval, maybe we are looking at this through human eyes, not through the eyes of our critters. 

 

Other people hesitate to bring a new pet home because they just don’t want to go through the pain of another loss someday. 

 

Anyone who invites an animal into their life - in most cases - will be saying goodbye to them at some point. We have the exquisite pleasure of sharing our journey with these wonderful, loving creatures, but unless something happens to us first there will always come a time when our paths separate and they go on ahead without us. We need to be able to let them go - letting go is part of the adventure. It’s just so difficult. Someone once said to me the last thing he let go of had claw marks on it! I love that.

 

So, how do you know when you’re ready to bring a new pet home?

 

For some people it may be months – or even years – before they are ready to bring a new animal companion into their lives. For others, the empty space created by the loss of their pet may be too heartbreaking to live with, and they may choose to bring a new animal home right away. This is one of those experiences that is NOT dictated by time – it is all about the heart.

 

Or, you may think you are absolutely, no-questions-asked NOT ready to go down that road again, and then all of a sudden there you are at the animal shelter, staring into the most beautiful, soulful eyes you have ever seen. You just KNOW you two were meant to find each other. You may even feel a sense of divine intervention, or have the feeling your lost animal had something to do with bringing you together. However the connection was made, one thing you know for certain is that THIS animal is coming home with you…and that most wonderful of journeys begins again.

 

That’s sort of what happened after I lost Martha. It had been less than 7 weeks, but there I was at the county shelter, looking for another “Martha” – a medium sized, shaggy female dog. And then I saw Jake.

 

The rest, as they say, is history.