“I met a man at the grocery store today who saw my cart full of clearance bananas and asked if I was making banana bread. I told him they were for the dogs at the humane society. He smiled and said he and his wife had two dogs for 15 years. But after losing both, his wife didn\u2019t think she could do it again. I told him I understood. I\u2019d felt that way too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I lost my heart dog, Jeri, six years ago. I met her at NHS when she was just a pup and I was 19. She was everything\u2014my constant, my best friend. When she got sick with heart failure, I held on too long. I wasn\u2019t ready. I couldn\u2019t picture life without her. We had 14 years, and it still didn\u2019t feel like enough. I have regrets\u2014things I wish I\u2019d done differently, especially near the end\u2014but you don\u2019t get a do-over. You just carry it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A few months after she was gone, I started volunteering at the shelter. First laundry. Then walking dogs and fostering (I kept the boy). Now I make enrichment. All of it started because of her. My heart didn\u2019t heal all at once\u2014it healed by showing up for animals who needed someone to care.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I know it probably seems like the shelter is always asking\u2014adopt more, donate more, help more. The truth is, everyone is drowning. There are too many animals and not enough space, time, or people. I don\u2019t have some big solution. But I do know this: if you\u2019ve lost a pet and you\u2019re scared to open your heart again, maybe think about it anyway. Not because it\u2019ll be the same (it won\u2019t)\u2014but because there might be a new kind of love waiting for you. One that doesn\u2019t replace what you lost, but honors it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I still miss Jeri. Constantly. But I love my next dog, Conner, with my whole being, too. My heart has just expanded to hold the loss with the love. Giving him a good life feels like the best way to say thank you to her. And I think she\u2019d be really proud of me.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n
-Michaela<\/p>\n\n\n\n
(147\/150)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
147\/150 | Aug. 3<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":52,"featured_media":69042,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-68909","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-150-stories"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68909","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/52"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68909"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68909\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":69162,"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68909\/revisions\/69162"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/69042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68909"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68909"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nehumanesociety.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68909"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}