_Sky, you're right: I am mourning the loss of others. I lost my father about a month before Sandy, my bird last July, and one of my family's cats a few weeks ago. Also, I adopted a second German Shepherd a few months after Sandy died and had to return her to the rescue group two days later because she was too rough and aggressive with my other dog. That anniversary is coming up on Valentine's Day. As you can tell, I've had to deal with a lot of things in a little over a year.

I grieve Sandy the most, though. She was the dog I had wanted since I was seven or eight years old...I got her just before my nineteenth birthday, and she died just short of three years later (she was about ten or eleven when I adopted her). Sandy was also "my" first dog--the first one to really bond with me only and not another family member. I think those things play a factor, too.