subject that put so much into perspective.
The interactions that you share with your
dogs on a daily basis are prolific.
love and welcome your presence no matter what
has happened in your day apart from them. You
are the world to your dogs. They are just a part
of your world. This is a relationship like no
others. It cannot be replicated.
dog is that the communication on their part is
wordless. We can say that we understand their
thoughts and gestures but we never really have
confirmation with language that WE consider
solidly clear. So we hope that we are doing our
best to do the right things by what we think they
want. But so much of that is subjective on our
parts. That creates some uncertainty and a
feeling of incompleteness that is left hanging
when they leave us. There is not enough closure
for our own human needs. I think that we need
to try and get past that. It causes so much more
emotional trauma in the loving owners left
behind.
mourning is the loss of the daily interactions that
are so much a part of who we are. That is the
part that slowly gets better with time, though it
never truly goes away. The perceived incom-
pleteness of the communication stays with us
much longer; always that little voice in our heads
saying "what if". I wish that I could say that I
know better than to allow that voice to survive.
behavior knowledge know what kind of commu-
nication existed between me and my dogs? Yes,
in the rational part of my brain. But we all have
that little voice and that little voice can be loud
when we allow it.
myself. As loving dog parents, we do what we
feel is right for our dogs and we do the best that
we can with the knowledge that we have. We
love fiercely and completely and we need to
view that as enough and not feel regrets for
what we might have done differently to have our
dogs in our lives longer. Dog's lives are precious
but they are far too brief and grief is the price
that we pay to have so much happiness in our
lives.