<h5 style="text-align: center;">We lose them.</h5>
If you’ve owned a dog, you know what I mean. You invest time, energy, money, and love. They fill your heart to overflowing.

Then one day your beloved journeys over the Rainbow Bridge.

From the moment you pick up that fluffy little ball of fur, your head recognizes a dog’s life span just isn’t the same as yours. Yet, for some reason your hearts refuse to acknowledge what your head knows and when the time comes your heart cracks into a bazillion pieces.

<a href="http://judythewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2016-COLLAGE-cropped.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-7008 size-medium" src="http://judythewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/2016-COLLAGE-cropped-216x300.jpg" alt="2016-collage-cropped" width="216" height="300" /></a>I know. I’m there.

This summer we lost our beloved Toby.

Toby was our fourth Old English sheepdog. Obadiah, Micah, and Rhinestone met him on the bridge. So did Lucky, Azariah, Bernie, and Scuttles, our little mixed breed babies.

Toby left behind two very, very sad and lonely humans, and his Maltese pal, Buster.

Even though losing is pet is part of owning a pet, the goodbyes never get easy. The separation is hard no matter how many times you go through it.

<a href="http://judythewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/stone-cropped.jpg"><img class="alignleft wp-image-7012 size-thumbnail" src="http://judythewriter.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/stone-cropped-150x150.jpg" alt="stone-cropped" width="150" height="150" /></a>We coped in different ways with each loss. This time we have a memorial stone (from a friend who loved Toby as much as we did) to place in Toby's favorite spot on the front porch.

Our grieve is the same as when we lose a human loved one or friend. Time will heal the sadness we hear, we know. That doesn’t stop the tears.

We move on one day at a time. Some days are better than others.

On those not so good days, we focus on the fun times: the long walks, the snuggles, the tug-of-wars, all the comical things Old English are known for...

And, quietly hope that one day another Old English sheepdog puppy will appear to steal our heart, and we can start the journey all over again.