Ah, what else can I say…40 days is a special time for my culture's way of berevement. 40 days is when the soul goes to heaven. I am filipino and we have prayer meetings every day for 40 days after they have passed to help them leave our world and into the next.

I miss her so badly. I get blind-sided by memories of her, random thoughts through the day. I smell things that remind me of her. I see evidence of a much happier time: nose prints on the glass doors, dirty smudges on the drywall, her scratches on my back seat, the scent of the stairway that leads to our garage sends a flood of memories of the day I taught her how to go down the stairs as a puppy.

I didnt know how much i loved her until she was gone.This hurts, big time.

I want her back, but still remember how much pain she was in at the end. It was a bittersweet thing: letting go of her but also allowing her to let go of that cancer. I know we did the right thing by making the call, i do not regret that. I am just reeling with the pain of losing her at such a young age. She was perfect, knew exactly how to act, knew what i wanted. I never knew a dog who knew that her master was irritated with putting her toys back in the basket and would do it herself. Never! Such a good girl.

My sweet, sweet Shelli Belle.

2 months isn't a long time to grieve. We've been doing it for 5 months now, but have to say the pain isn't as intense. Sending you lots of golden hugs. The happy memories will put a smile on your face.

Cathy/Jane/Spirit Skyler/Chloe

As has already been said – two months isn't long enough for a heart to heal from the loss of a loved one. At all. All those random memories – no matter how painful and how poignant – are so okay. 

I'm going to ditto what Comet's mom said and wish for happier, and peaceful, times for you.

Here's proof this is such a great family, we all know what it's like to be there and understand why. Gus has been gone almost 4 months and I still can't believe he won't be back. I think we all say if we could have just one more lick, maybe throw the ball just one more time, one more hug, for me I would give anythng to have Gus get up on the couch and lay his head on my lap or  have him walk out to the barn with me and watch him jump up in the bunk and harras the cows. I still have the block there at the waterer so he could get a drink, I can't bring myself to move it, I guess this is how we heal. I think most of us have gone through this before, but like I say, having gone through the cancer journey and all the emotion connected with it makes losing them that much harder, which maybe is the reason it takes longer for the pain to ease. So don't feel like your alone in how you feel, I think it's a normal feeling after losing our buddies, and if you think about it, when we offer advice to someone new here, we tell them all dogs will heal a little different, we are the same way, time will make our loss less painful, for some it will just take longer and we all handle it a little different. Paws up, Spirit Gus and Dan 

The loss is so intense it would not be realistic to expect to heal in so short a time. Tai has been gone for almost a month – she was my soulmate. Sometimes it feels like yesterday, sometimes it feels like a year ago. I think of her every day. I miss her tremendously. I still cry and expect that I will for quite a long time. I can't talk about her without feeling my eyes well up and hearing my voice start to crack.

Don't be hard on yourself. Shelli was a huge part of your life and your heart. Allow yourself to grieve for as long as you need to. Eventually the pain will start to subside all by itself but don't rush things. You are merely giving recognition of how important she was. Many people won't understand but they, in my mind, are not worthy then of 1) my friendship or 2) being dog companions.

RIP sweet Shelli and help your Mum to remember you with a heart full of love and void of pain.

Angel Tai's Mum