Jason, there is no rush but are you sure there will never be another puppy for you? Not a push but for me after a couple of months I always decided that that house was just to quiet and away we went again. Besides what would all the birds do without a steady supply of Sheltie fur to line their nests, I have nature obligations. I hated to think of going thru the grief again but for the years we have it is nice to hear them talk and sit in my lap and create their special havoc. Some of the toys and maybe the food you might want to use again.. we kept crates etc and toys and some of them we used again, some were ignored. New boys new toys.. not sure how Farmers dogs food keeps but shelters might want it if you really want to give it away or can you freeze it???
Good-ish update on my Katy!
- Thread starter Jason_C
- Start date
Sharon7
Moderator
I would think a local shelter would take unopened food gladly. That way you can pay it forward. That's what I did.
"Never" is a strong word.
My wife became a travel agent several years ago (a real one, not the ones you see that are in MLMs) so we've done a lot of traveling in the last few years, but were always limited because of the pets. I had a well trained koi so we needed a house sitter, and as Katy got older we found a doggie daycare that offered 24/7 supervision for dogs like her. But that was an extra $250 /day, so we were limited to 5-7 day trips.
On our last trip, the house sitter didn't realize that my koi had knocked his intake out of place and he died. In a painful, horrible way. I'm still very upset about that, because it was really my fault for not talking to her about his games ahead of time! Nobody really understands why I was upset over "just a fish", but I had him for 15 years! He would eat out of my hand, he recognized me out of other people, and he wagged his tail and wanted to play when he saw me! His name was "Sid Ficious".
After he passed, we sort of loosely talked about how, when Katy is gone in the far, far future, we would be able to take longer trips. Like a month in Scandinavia (whisky tour through Scotland and Ireland, maybe), another month exploring Southeast Asia, things like that. And there's a very loose back-of-the-mind plan to explore these places in the hope of finding somewhere that we'd like to retire.
Katy passed a lot sooner than we'd hoped, but now we're sort of in that position of choosing whether we seriously want to travel like we had planned. A new puppy would make those trips a lot harder and a lot more expensive, so it's sorta picking one or the other.
And even though we haven't said this out loud, we really spent about $5,000 /year on Katy, maybe more: $200 /month for Farmer's Dog, $100 for her grooming, treats, vet, it all added up. That money can also be diverted to longer, bigger trips, and we wouldn't even notice the extra cost because it was already budgeted.
We're both way too raw right now to talk about it, but that was the original plan, anyway.
Living in a rural area, there aren't any shelters :-( The have the county animal shelter, but it's a kill shelter! With an old fashioned bulk gas chamber. And they're grossly reputed to kill in less than 24 hours. It's horrible, I've read a ton of stories of local people with a missing pet, they find out that it was picked up by the pound, and already been killed.
We also have a lot of dog fighters locally, and I fully suspect that the "shelter" picks them up, sells them to fighters for training, and just says that they were euthanized.
If you're interested in seeing a time this last May when I had a county commissioner removed from office because of his connection to dog fighting? This was at a county meeting. He saw that I was on the agenda and resigned a few hours before the meeting:
Anyway.
We have a Humane Society, but they don't house animals directly, they just arrange foster homes while helping to find permanent homes. I might see if they can use the food.
Sharon7
Moderator
There is absolutely no harm in taking a good long break and doing some traveling. When you're ready, you're ready.
At this point, might I suggest you start another thread since the title of this one doesn't really reflect the discussions we're having now.
We're all VERY familiar with your raw feelings right now. Very sorry to hear the state of your local shelter. Yikes.
At this point, might I suggest you start another thread since the title of this one doesn't really reflect the discussions we're having now.
We're all VERY familiar with your raw feelings right now. Very sorry to hear the state of your local shelter. Yikes.
Jason, your local shelter should be banned from this earth- You will know whether, if ever, you are ready again..for me it was less complex but it is different for everyone. If you ever do decide that you want to do all of this again I am sure it will be a lucky pup that gets to live with you.. BTW we have always had house sitters come to our house when we traveled even 9 month in Sweden..we have been lucky but not sure all of them have been as good for our pets. We knew them for the most part so they weren't strangers.. Best wishes.
KarenCurtis
Forums Sage
