"FAMILY" PET

The wife and I lost our dog "Scooter" last June. We bid goodbye to him when we learned that he was suffering from cancer. Please keep in mind before you read further that this will not be one of those sad tales about how a pet is taken away from this earth way too early, blah, blah, blah.

This story is about a practice that otherwise well-meaning people commonly do after people experience the loss of a pet.

Since we lost Scooter, we have been asked one or more of the following questions on numerous occasions:

First, the probing, uncertain question:

"Are you going to have another dog?"

Next, the nearly foregone conclusion question:

"When are you going to have another dog?"

Lastly, the it's going to happen for sure question:

"When you do have another dog, what kind of dog will you have?'"

Let's think for a moment of how most pet lovers view their pets. Pets are part of their families. That said, a pet, albeit to a lesser degree, occupies a place in a family not dissimilar to that of its prime members (husbands, wives, siblings, etc.).

Now, think about a man who has lost a loved one, a family member - a wife, for example. Let's substitute the word "wife" in the previous three commonly-asked questions and see how that feels:

"Are you going to have another wife?"

"When are you going to have another wife?"

"When you do have another wife, what kind of wife will you have?"

Sounds pretty cruel, doesn't it?

Readers, enjoy your day.