This is Paddy, my derp faced dog.
She is a pocket beagle.
My family and I got her as a 2.5mth old pup from Pasir Ris Farmway. Yes, adoption was considered, but that ultimately did not work out.
Paddy joined the family 3 months after my previous dog, Princess, passed in May 2011- Mother's Day.
So soon, you ask.
Yes, but Paddy was not purchased as a rebound/ replacement, if that's what you're thinking.
Some people believe that once you love and lose an animal companion, it is hard to envision living through the loss of another again. This would often be spoken as an accusation, as if the memory of the loss love was to be kept sacred.
I always never know whether to laugh or show an appropriately contrite face when that happens.
We often overlook the transient nature of life, to realise that it is always better to have loved fully and loss (even again and again), than to never experience it (ever again).
I cried for weeks after Princess died. I cried when I showered, before I slept, on the way out, when I was watching shows. I cried so much, because I loved so much. But mainly because I was missing the familiarity of her, and my experience of love for her, butnever because i wanted her to remain forever beside me.
That's the funny thing about loss. It really is about you, not the departed. And so it is with love.
So not having the courage to seek out another companion, to give love to, is really not having the courage to open yourself up again.
And what is life when you do not live open and free?