Jake

My partner-in-crime Marty passed in September. A toy poodle, we were together for over a decade. He was the closest thing I had to a child. He was my baby. The grief was hard. Yet part of me missed canine companionship.

I sort of felt though that a new dog would be cheating on Marty. I decided to go to an adoption event. I didn’t find a dog there. But I started looking, I saw Toby, an adorable poodle mix with a cute underbite online and he was perfect. I instantly knew that this was the dog Marty wanted me to have.

My dad had a dog and he and Marty became best friends. They ate out of the same bowl, slept together on the same part of the sofa; they were inseparable. He was a poodle mix with a cute under bite and his name was Toby.

He’d been picked up from a shelter and was staying with a foster family. When I went to meet him, it was a done deal. He jumped into my lap and fell asleep. His foster parents were amazed at how quickly we bonded. In fact, they felt that he chose me as much as I chose him.

I am definitely a pet parent. Having Jake (I changed his name) has added that missing component to my life. Jake isn’t Marty. They are two very different dogs. The space in my heart for Marty will always be there and it will always be just for him. But Jake is occupying another space in my heart. There is room for both.