I’m never getting a pet again!

[Whynotmakeittwo]

I have a 13 year old dog and now that she is old I worry about her all the time, she has cataracts now and is blind and her black fur is almost completely grey.

I am dreading the day that we lose her and know that it’s going to be extremely painful for us. Last night, we had to take her to the emergency vets and I thought that was it. Luckily she is fine now! But the emotions that I felt last night, I don’t want to go through again. I feel like having pets is so much pain. Of course they bring you joy too, and there’s more happy times than sad, but I don’t think I could put myself through this again. She had a lump on her paw a few years ago and again, I was worried sick. I know we probably don’t have long left with her and it makes me so sad, I don’t know how we will cope without her (obviously we will, and that sounds dramatic, but if you have a dog you know what I mean). Lots of people get dogs straight after they lose one because they can’t handle not having a dog in the house and feel it’s too empty etc. but I honestly don’t know if I could cope with the worry and sadness again and the hole that they eventually leave.

I know what you mean. And it is a worry. I do feel that the love they give us is worth it. Having more than one pet at a time helps slightly I think. I don’t want to be without my beloved doggies.
Im sorry you are going through this. It is hard.

Pets bring so much joy to our lives and when they leave, it is heartbreaking. At this moment in time I can understand why you would never want another pet again. However, right now cast those thoughts aside and enjoy every moment with your faithful companion.

Your heart will ache when they are gone but eventually you will only remember the special moments you shared.

Live in the now. Enjoy today.

Mu mums boyfriend said the same thing when his dog died. He got another puppy two weeks later.
You don't know how you are going to react when the time comes and what will help you then.

I am never getting another dog again because I am genuinely not enjoying all the looking-after the dog requires. I'll get a cat instead.

I completely understand. My current dog is not even 2 and I worry about not having her one day, it's ridiculous. I think the worry and ultimate grief is outweighed by all the love and joy they bring though. I just wish they could live longer!

I lost my dog 2 years ago, he was my best mate, such a beautiful soul. I still miss him, I always will.

I couldn't stand going home once he was gone and jumped into getting a rescue dog only a month later.

Big regret.

We adore our rescue dog but due to his past he is such hard work and is nothing like my previous placid and easy going dog. For that reason alone we will never have another pet (maybe a cat though, they are much easier).

What I wish I had done was to give it a good year or so before even contemplating the idea of another dog. I should have looked at things with a clearer head but grief makes you do rash things.

We lost our beautiful cat in Feb and the pain was unbelievable. But don’t rule out never having another animal; we waited a while and took our time but now we have another girl who is a completely different personality and who brings us joy in an entirely different way.

Take care, and be sure to enjoy the time you have. You’ll regret it if you don’t.

I keep rodents and they are great. It's sad when they pass away but not comparable to the pain of losing a dog for me (I have experienced that too).

Oh they really do leave a huge dog shaped void op. You never get over it. For a long time I also thought I couldn't do it again but someone said to me imagine how good it would feel, and be, to give another dog the life ours had.

So we did. And when the time comes I'll be heartbroken again. And I'll do it again. And again. Because I feel it's my duty to make sure we always know there's at least one dog being treated like a little prince/princess 😊

I don’t think you are being unreasonable. We had our last dog pts 6 years agp and I still miss her and am still tormented by guilt that we should have done it sooner. DH and I adore dogs but are 99% sure we won’t get another one. We get our dog fox by dog sitting for family and friends. And to be brutally honest we love travel and much as our dogs brought us joy, they made that very complicated.

I had to put my 17 year old dog down last week - it's the worst feeling in the world. Last another do the year before, he was very old as well. I wont have another, it's heartbreaking. I have intermittent bouts of crying. I feel sad all day. The house is quiet. I go out just to see other peoples dogs walking, maybe pat a few. Can't bring myself to move my dogs things, her waterbowl is still there. Grief - is the price we must pay for love.

❤️

I used my girls water and food bowls as little plant pots and put some Forget Me Nots in them. Couldn't bring myself to throw them away. So sorry for your loss. It will get a bit easier I promise xx

Thank you, that is very kind of you, i appreciate it,

I am sorry about your lovely dog, I hope you have some more time togther (assuming he has decent quality of life)
I have had several pets PTS in old age , one of my much loved cats only a few weeks ago and I firmly believe that if you can't make that decision then you probably shouldn't have a pet.
Getting another pet once you lose one CAN help, I remember when we had our family dog PTS and my Mum said she wasn't getting another one but only lasted a few days. She said that it was when she was sat down and put her hand down to stroke the dog who usually sat next to her but wasn't there that she decided to fill the gap.
I remember all my pets that we ever had from being a small child to now and getting another one will never replace the ones you lost but it can help your heart a bit.
We decided no more pets a few years ago, although we still have 1 cat and a dog, because when the DC have left in 5 or so years we want to be able to travel more and not be tied by anything but I am very tempted to get another cat as the one we lost recently was my sofa buddy. I am hoping that when DD leaves for Uni soon "her" cat may vacate her bedroom and spend some more time downstairs with me.

My dog is 12 and I feel the same, no other dog would compare to him anyway, it's so hard xx

My husband and I have already decided that once our current two cross over we won’t be getting any more dogs. We have two rescues, one absolute sweetheart, the other has brain damage and is a LOT of work/heartbreak/expense and of course we love her to bits but it’s confirmed that this is it for us as far as pets go.

Lost my ddog over a year ago and can honestly say the grief was as intense as when my Mum died.

Apart from a handful of days he was by my side, all day and night, for 13 years, so the parting was incredibly painful.

You just have to ride it out and let time help heal.

My beautiful boy is 12 this year and to see him age and know we don’t have long left with him is heartbreaking.

I don’t know how we’ll cope when the time comes I really don’t. Even thinking about it is making me well up.

What a lovely way of thinking about it 💜

Yes the thing that really put me off getting anymore pets was watching two of them die of cancer in the last year. Its awful and so emotionally draining. We have an elderly cat remaining, so will probably have to go through it all again soon!

I completely get what you mean OP. My 2 dogs are old ladies now and it breaks my heart to think about the day they are no longer here. I just try and remember that grief is the price you pay for love. I adore them and they love me. I've given them the very best life I can and they have brought so much happiness into my life. It will break my heart but then they have been worth their weight in gold. I wouldn't have missed it for the world!

My friends dog was getting old & had some health issues. He wasn't going to have long. She got a puppy. I have to say, I thought it was 'mean' at the time & thought her old boy (who I loved to pieces) deserved her full attention & a quiet life, not a mental puppy. I thought her reasoning of 'not wanting to be without a dog' was pretty selfish

it actually it worked out ok. Old Boy taught the puppy a lot of things like toileting & puppy seemed to bring some life & joy to old boy.

old Boy died in quite a traumatic wat & we were all devastated, but having the puppy around did help & as she's pretty much stuck at home I don't know how she would have coped being without a dog.

i think also as she had both for a bit, it didn't feel like she was replacing old boy with the puppy.

something to consider??

It's the worst thing about pets, I think almost every day about my old dog, and my two amazing cats, and it's been years now for two of them, and I have a new dog, but that's the pain of life isn't it - animals and humans, you can only avoid it by not having them in your life.

I can understand it - my parents say they couldn't get another dog at their age due to the risk of having to watch the slow decline of another one but we are all headed that way - I feel really proud of how well I looked after my cat for the last two years of her life and it gives me some comfort that we did our absolute best and she was well looked after by us and the vets.

My dog is 13. I do think we will be lucky to still have him next summer. It breaks my heart even thinking about him not being here.

We have said no more dogs. None will come close to him.

Cats, I will always have.

We had two dogs and the last one died 7 years ago. We won't be getting dogs again, we've thought about it but tbh we couldn't go through it all again, it was very painful.

Plus the world is a different place now for owning dogs. Too many bad dog owners around to make walks really enjoyable. No one seems to actually train their dogs anymore, just shout at them to come back!! I've seen too many dogs pushed around in dog prams and come to the conclusion the world has gone mad!

Plus rise of dangerous breeds increases chance of attacks on your own dogs. It's just too stressful owning dogs now.

I agree that the grief is horrendous to go through. Throughout my life I have lost 6 pets (5 dogs and 1 cat). We currently have two dogs and 1 cat, all getting on in years. My comfort is that we gave them the best life that we could, and that they were happy. I try to also adopt, which helps as well as adoption gives an animal a second chance at life. It is so hard though.