A short excerpt from CHAPTER TWELVE of A Portrait of Grief

…………from page 119:   Adopt a Pet

The month after losing Wes (our oldest son), we adopted a dog.

I had seen miniature poodles in California during a bridal trunk Show for Saks Fifth Avenue, where I was presenting my bridal gowns.  It made me happy just to look at those cuddly pooches.

My husband had always been allergic to dogs, but after searching the internet, I learned that poodles are hypoallergenic. They are also smart, obedient, and anxious to please. We named him King Louis (pronounced Lou-ee) as a nod to my working days in France.  Louis was my constant companion and continual comforter.  It is a wonder that he ever learned to walk because he spent almost all the time in my arms.

There is a reason therapy dogs are allowed in hospitals, nursing homes, and airplanes.  They bring comfort. They improve our blood pressure and enhance our brain chemistry. With loving eyes and wagging tales, they assure us that everything will be okay. Besides all this, they make us smile.  They give us reason to laugh.  They change the subject from sorrows to happiness, from death to life.  They give us needed love at a time when that’s all that matters.

Louis gave me a reason to live.  He made me get up in the morning.  He forced me to exercise.  After losing Louis when he ran after a deer and couldn’t be found (sob!), we found another poodle quickly.  We named her Antoinette, calling her Annie. She did her magic healing ministry for thirteen years.

Don’t like dogs?  How about a goat, a hamster, a fish-- you get the idea.  As author Nick Trout says,

 “It may be a cat, a bird, a ferret, or a guinea pig, but

The chances are high that when someone close to 

you died, a pet will be there to pick up the slack.

Pets devour the loneliness.  They give us purpose,

responsibility, a reason for getting up in the 

morning, and a reason to look to the future.  They

ground us, help us escape the grief, make us laugh,

and take full advantage of our weakness by exploit-

ing our furniture, our beds, and our refrigerator.

We wouldn’t have it any other way.  Pets are our seat

belts on the emotional roller coaster of life—they

can be trusted, they keep us safe, and they sure do

smooth out the ride.”