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"It's better to have loved and lost, than never to have loved at all."

Alfred Lord Tennyson

Six years ago my kids were 12, 8 and 3 and all three of them were afraid of dogs, yet the older two thought they wanted one anyway. After a lot of thought, research and discussion, we decided to become a dog family.

We approached L.I.F.E. Animal Rescue and asked them to find us the best and sweetest family dog to join our family and to break our kids of their fear of dogs. After several weeks of showing up on adoption day only to be told, "No, not yet" we arrived one Saturday to hear Emily say, "We've got your dog!" Of course, panic filled my body and I thought, "Oh, no! What are we doing?"

Well, to say we hit the jackpot of dogs would be an understatement. Havi quickly became a member of our family and loved us back as much as we had grown to love her. For six years, we loved our sweet Havi and she truly took care of us. She guarded our house, faithfully scaring the mailman away each day and announcing the arrival of our visitors. Nudging us for love if our hands were idle and always staying close so as not to miss a minute of our love.

Havi laid under my desk as I worked each day at my computer and checked on my kids in their beds each night before putting herself to bed in my husband's and my bedroom. She was the smartest and most loving dog!

Unfortunately, in April our dear Havi was diagnosed with encephalitis and lived another 7 weeks until June 5th, when we had to say our very sad goodbye to the best dog ever.

We all learned so much from having loved and lost our dear dog. She taught us how to be a dog family, she taught us about unconditional love by example. Our sweet Havi also taught us how to lose someone we loved so much, how to band together to get through it and how to move through the grief that followed as a family. The house felt so empty at first. We all talked about Havi daily in the days after her death and lots of tears were shed - mostly by me. We loved remembering the funny things she did - like leaving me a pizza crust under my pillow when we went out of town. That was the ultimate act of love, don't you think? She also taught us that we could laugh through our tears.

Well, some time has passed and we decided it was time to welcome a new pet into our home. I suppose I felt a sense of urgency as my daughter is leaving in just a few weeks for college and I didn't want her to feel left out of the process as we learn to love and adapt to our new dog.

Last Tuesday, we welcomed Lacey into our family. She is sweet and smart and lots of fun! Lacey has a happy spirit and a playful demeanor. We have grown to love her in such a short time. Of course, we still miss our Havi, but Lacey reminds us that life moves on and even a broken heart can grow to make room to love again.