[Baynative]

The best way to honor the life of a faithful companion who has given you unconditional love is to share your heart with another. Bringing a younger dog into your home to befriend an older one helps train the younger one and makes the passing of the older one a bit easier when there’s someone still there to feed and hug.

[Joe 6-pack]

You could not be more correct...

The big guy was Timber. He was my guardian angel, roommate, best friend and confidant. I got him in '98 when I returned from a tour in Korea. The little scrawny waif is Ranger, and the pic was taken shortly after I adopted him as a Katrina rescue in 2005. Ranger was heartworm + and severely malnourished, and Timber took to him just like a big brother. For the next two years we were the three musketeers, until Timber died of a stroke in his sleep one night in 2007. Thank God I had Ranger there to come home to every night. Now Ranger is getting up there in years with some frost around the muzzle, and I think it's about time we pull another one into the fold...

[mplsconservative]

Oh Bay, we’ve done that for 27 years - always 2 dogs, or cats, and when one dies, we get another dog. No more cats. This is the first time we’ve only had one dog.

Our last big dog Lab mix died of brain cancer, one month before my dad was diagnosed with a glioblastoma. That was four years ago. It was a painful year to say the least.

I’m just not so young anymore and I look ahead and wonder if I could do right by another pet for another 10 to 15 years. I’m 54, so perhaps I’m being silly. I also have my own elderly mother to look after in her assisted living place which kind of makes me feel old before my time. Gah!