As I looked on my TimeHop this morning, I became apparent of the loss of my boxer dog 3 years ago. Her name was Baby, and she was the sweetest dog I have ever known. We rescued her from an abusive home after she ran away in 2006, and every moment after then was the best. We knew from the beginning she was a precious soul, and after having her for a long seven years, her soul became too precious to remain on this earth. When the reminder showed up on my phone, I began thinking about how hard the loss of a pet can be. You don't really think about it while spending moments with your sweet animal, but they become such a big part of your life. Their life spans may be much shorter than ours, but even if they do live to their capacity, that is still a tremendous amount of time to spend with them. My family only had Baby for 7 years, but at 16 years old, we had owned her for almost half my life. That is a long time to spend with anyone or anything. Still, why does it seem so hard to say goodbye? Maybe it's because animals have so many lovable qualities.

Whether it's the wagging tail of an adorable puppy, or the soft purr of a cuddly kitten, pets are absolutely perfect, until of course they misbehave. Perhaps it could be that quality of them being imperfect just like humans that makes us relate to them. Like when you see your cat lazily laying across the couch, and you can't help but say to yourself, "same." Could it also be the emotions and thoughts that pets make us feel? It's so hard to look a baby animal in the eyes and tell it no, even though you know you have to, so maybe that could be an answer to why we love our pets so much. Or maybe it's the emotions that they feel about us, like when you are gone all day and come home to your dog not being able to calm down when it sees you and looking like it's about to wag its tail completely off.

No matter what it may be that causes us to completely fall in love with our pets, it seems to only make it harder to say goodbye to them in the end. My family mourned the loss of our boxer Baby for what seemed like months, and didn't want to ever get another indoor dog because we didn't want to just replace the void. However, after three years, we have found a new boxer puppy, another rescue, and he is named Dewey, for Dewey County, Oklahoma.

Whether or not you are a pet owner, it is not hard to see the love between that of an animal and their human, so subsequently, you can easily tell how big of a toll it can take on that human to let their angel go. To anyone grieving with the current loss of a pet, know that they are in a better place just waiting for you to join them. You will be reunited again.

"Animals have a much better attitude to life and death than we do. They know when their time has come. We are the ones that suffer when they pass, but it's a healing kind of grief that enables us to deal with other griefs that are not so easy to grab hold of." -Emmylou Harris