Tell me it will hurt less

[Tvci5]

We are sadly having to say goodbye to our wonderful dog tomorrow. He's my first dog and it's just awful. We've know for a few days it is time and I feel on the verge of an anxiety attack at the thought of having to come home without him. I know it's the kindest last thing we can do for him but I feel such guilt. How I will miss my friend

I am so very sorry. There's no pain quite like it, but we take on that pain so they don't have to. Thinking of you today

I'm so sorry. I won't lie, it's devastating when you have to say goodbye to them. It will take time but it will get easier.

My boy is at rest. We are so very sad.

I'm so sorry OP, the hardest thing yet the kindest.

We said goodbye to our beloved dog two weeks before I gave birth to Dd. We had her fifteen years, she held me together during loss after loss after loss. Whilst it has got easier I think of her every single day and my heart breaks that she never met Dd.

We have a huge picture of her in the kitchen so I see her every day. When I take Dd to bed she aves night night. It's been nearly two years and I still listen for her when I take cheese out the fridge or step over where she would lie when I am cooking.

Crying now just thinking about her.

We had another before we lost her and that certainly helped to the extent that I'm not sure I could have got one knowing that pain.

Take care. Your dog sounds very loved.

I am so very sorry. It is so, so hard.

I remember exactly how it felt and I will never forget that feeling, knowing that my old labrador needed to be put to sleep that day. I drove back from the vet on that awful Sunday night last November pretty much on autopilot and in shock, even though I had known it was coming for some time. I couldn't function for ages.

Your dog was very much loved and had a lovely life with you. Hold onto that.

I am eight months on now. It has got easier in a learning to live with it sense. I have a box of keepsakes with his collar and lead, and a tuft of his hair that I found wafting out from underneath the sofa just after he had gone (as if he was telling me that he hadn't really left me, I just couldn't see him anymore). I have his ashes in an urn with a nice photograph of him on it and that sits in "his" corner of the living room. Collecting those from the vet a week or so after he had died did help me as I felt as though I was bringing him home, back to his rightful place.

I also have a lovely portrait of him which was painted by a fantastic artist friend. I am so glad I have that, and I am now starting to feel able to ask DH to put it up on the wall for me again the next time he has his drill out.

It feels hellish right now, but get through one day at a time and you will gradually learn to cope. I often find it helps to think of all of the mad things that my labrador ever did, and yes, the naughty ones too. The times he upstaged me! There were plenty of them. I can laugh and smile about them now even tough I do still feel tears stinging a bit.