1/30/2015
Tena took the news pretty hard. At first she was sad, but ok. Then they said “goodbye”. I brought in the little casket I made for him with him in it. He’s all wrapped in a blanket and looks peaceful. his eyes are open, so that was a little weird. She said “goodbye” and then sobbed for a good 5 minutes, hugging me. We put treats in the box with him for his final sendoff. Then we talked about him, looked at pictures and video, and she asked to frame one very nice picture of him – which we did.
It’s so different without him. When I walk into a room, I expect to see a tail wagging.
oh and I gave tena his collar with dogtag which she put on a stuffed animal dog that’s black and brown like Mickey
we’re contemplating what to name the stuffed dog
and Tena wanted to look at new dogs last night (online, at shelter), I let her but it made her sad so we stopped. I told her that I thought we should wait at least until school is out to even think about another dog. I said I don’t think we should rush into trying to replace Mickey, we should honor his memory by going through the grief process and missing him. But also that he is probably right here with us in spirit, wishing he could lick away our tears and make us not feel sad. he would not want us to be sad!
This morning Dennis said the dreaded “I don’t want another dog” and “this is why I didn’t want one to start with”. I told him I understand how he feels, and that even though this hurts I would not trade the chance to have loved Mickey. I also told him that he’s better with a dog.