My dearly departured dog.

My poor black labrador named lucy, whom i knew for over 8 years, since i was in primary school even, died in late 2006.
In her later life she appeared to get weaker very slowly, we assumed it was with age, but later realised it was some kind of cancer, and a very severe infection [which could have been treated if she wasn't also so weakened by the cancer]
Until it was too late, we didn't think anything was wrong [naturaly, as it only showed when it was too late] We eventualy had to make the hard choice of ending her misery, extremely low chances of her pulling through, she didn't want to eat, could barely get up.
Earlier in 2007 it snowed, lucy loved the snow which makes me think "what if she was here today?" it had snowed many times in her lifetime, but snow had never been in such quantity or snow so fit for people to go outside in. While sledging with the new neighbors [and the old ones - by old i do of course mean that they have been living here for a while, in fact much longer than myself] I often stoped and thought "lucy would realy have enjoyed this" which is true, but it then made me think "what if we didn't put lucy down, what if she pulled through? she would be here having the time of her life!". Such regrets are not uncommon when you put down a pet and simular situations, many people will continue to feel guilty because of this, but most of the time they shouldn't.
Think of it like this: the chances are extremely thin lucy would have pulled through, I'm not even sure there was a chance. Now, to keep her alive for longer [which may have only been a few months] She would have had to have gone through a very painful process, in fact that is all she may have lived to feel: pain, suffering, unable to do anything, too weak to have enjoyed the snow. After her death i would always find it sad to come home and open the door with the absence of the rythem of her panting as she jumped about with her tail wagging, happy with my return. Chances are that it wouldn't have been like that, but instead I would be coming home to a even more unpleasant silence, maybe even the crying of my worried mother, lucy would barely be able to look up at me and wag her tail breifly from her matt, maybe even a quiet grunt of pain. She lead a good life, well fed, a family that loved her, compared to some she was quite lucky, her tail seemed to be wagging all of the time, and at least she died with her family around her.
Being very close to my dog, i was extremely upset at the time, and often bothered in the following months, i had to take a few days of school.
Now, at this point many people will be thinking silly, stupid, maybe even ignorant things such as "gosh, you are such a girl", "it's only a dog", "i bet you are using that as an excuse", possibly even "i have had a pet myself and have not been affected by his/her death nearly as much".
A lot of people, particularly those who do not have/ haven't had any pets, don't understand how close owners can somtimes be. In my case, i have known lucy throughout most of my childhood, longer than ive had most of my particularly significant friendships [the ones that do go back that far became long distance at one point.] In fact the bond between people and their fury friends are quite significant themselves, most friendships are permanent or long term, however, arguments and "fall-outs" are nothing unusual to friendships, and friendships may not always last a lifetime, Pets are different, the friendship will last that pets lifetime, the bond is much more unlikely to fade. Yes, there are things that can split a person and there much loved fury friend up, but Disloyalty is one of the things that is very unlikely to be the cause of seperation, [Not from the pet anyway.] Pets are who we give a lot of our "un-used" affection to, because we feel secure expressing our affection to them as their responce is not going to be negative.
Humans, they may never be quite what they seem, they are more complicated, and are way more untrustworthy [No, im not suggesting you hand your wallet to your dog to hold onto - however, if he is fairly vicious but isn't prone to chewing things up then theres an idea!] Which is part of what our pets often differ, they are simple, innocent, the rest of the world could suddenly turn against you, but your dog would still wag with delight at your arrival.
The death of our pets is Inevitable, and the chances are that it will be in our lifetime, we all have a problem accepting death as being part of life, and when we lose our pets which we are so affectionate about, we lose a part of ourselves [in some cases i have seen peoples personality change slightly after the death of their pet.] The majority of us are creatures of routine, which particularly affects us when things we care about so much suddenly disappear from our routine, making the experience very strange and more difficult, particularly when you look at the clock and think "it's mittens feeding time" then you remember that mittens recently died.
Pets are often like family members, in a way they almost are. For those of you who have never had pets, imagine a close friend or family member who you have known for years, maybe a decade, except try to picture them having a tail and walking on all fours and having paws, and being fury. Some one you would see almost every day, and were always around the house, could you imagine them dying?
I now have a new dog, bran, yellow labrador, a cute, laid back little thing. With lucy being my first dog, having a second dog is fairly difficult. Having a new pet feels like you are merely "replacing" the pet with another, and you feel you are treating them as some sort of object, or may feel like being disloyal. See it as a bit like being seperated from a partner, you would want a new one because you feel lonely and left out, you don't need to feel guilty about being disloyal to someone you have split up with. It's more like that the second pet is taking on the first pets "role" or "job", of course they are two completely different pets and unique, but there is nothing disloyal about getting a second one.

Side notes:
- in the first part i mention "we" or "us", in most cases im refering to my family, consisting of myself, my mother and my father, all of whom adored lucy, it was my parents decision to put her down, i wasn't in a particularly stable state to decide at the time - not that my opinion was ignored, but rather i decided i didn't want to choose weather to put my dear dog down or not
-when i use "mittens", i am not "taking the mess" im using stereotypical names so people can relate to what im saying
-my comparisons between humans and pets are generalisations and do have many exeptions, but you should hopefully get what im trying to say.