Topic: No matter how tough you think you are....

[Burke]

Wow. I am taken aback by many of your responses. Some of these are amazing and feel that I should keep these and repost else where to help others with loss.
Thanks everyone.

[fastbroshi]

  To anyone that's ever had a dog as your best friend, read "The Art of Racing in the Rain" by Garth Stein.  It definitely applies here, and one of our main characters happens to be a racer, so I know we'll all relate.
 

[ofreen]

this showed up in the inbox a while back..........

A man and his dog were walking along a road. The man was enjoying the scenery, when it suddenly occurred to him that he was dead.

This is from one of the best of the old Twilight Zone episodes called The Hunt.  A dog gets caught in the water by a raccoon, and the hunter goes in to help.  The raccoon prevails and they both end up drowned.  At first the man doesn't realize he is dead, and the story ends with the encounters as described.  That episode had a big effect on me when I saw it as a kid.

The saddest thing about dogs is that we can outlive so many.  It hurts to lose them, but a good way to honor their memory is to get another.

[Ecosse]

Well this story is a bit of the reverse- if I may be so blunt. But I've found the story to be touching and is the oldest example of the bond of animal and Man I've come across.

                                                                     Greyfriars Bobby
Bobby belonged to John Gray, who worked for the Edinburgh City Police as a night watchman, and the two were inseparable for approximately two years. On 15 February 1858, Gray died of tuberculosis. He was buried in Greyfriars Kirkyard, the graveyard surrounding Greyfriars Kirk in the Old Town of Edinburgh. Bobby, who survived Gray by fourteen years, is said to have spent the rest of his life sitting on his master's grave. A more realistic account has it that he spent a great deal of time at Gray's grave, but that he left regularly for meals at a restaurant beside the graveyard, and may have spent colder winters in nearby houses.

In 1867, when it was pointed out that an ownerless dog should be destroyed, the Lord Provost of Edinburgh, Sir William Chambers (who was also a director of the Scottish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals), paid for a renewal of Bobby's license, making him the responsibility of the city council.

Bobby died in 1872 and could not be buried within the cemetery itself, since it was consecrated ground; instead, he was buried just inside the gate of Greyfriars Kirkyard, not far from John Gray's grave.

-Wikipedia Click here

[stevej]

So sorry Burke,we know what you are going through having recently lost our beloved JR terrier Cinders aged 15.