How do you know when you're ready to adopt again?

[TorchTheWitch]

8. Personally, the only thing that has helped me recover

is getting another one ASAP. I can't stand even one day without a dog. I live alone and had pets all my life, so I just don't know how to function without one. After my first dog passed away, though I knew in my heart I wanted another one ASAP I wasn't able to get one for 8 miserable horrible wretched months later. When his time was coming because of what I learned about myself the last time though I felt guilty as hell I started the search before the current one was even gone. Good thing I did though because it wasn't quite a month after his passing that I got Yoshi and came back to the land of the living. That was a Terrible Horrible few weeks being dogless.

All my neighbors said they knew immediately when I had gotten another dog as soon as they looked at me because the utter misery that showed on my face was gone.

Of course, I had bouts of guilt from time to time just before I got him and for a bit after he arrived wondering if it was too soon. But I knew it had to be right since as soon as I saw him I suddenly felt like living again and just couldn't stand the thought of anyone else having him.

I figure your heart will know. That's how it seems to be for me anyway. If the idea of getting another fur baby or seeing the one you know is right for you and your heart both melts and sings you'll know. It's sort of the same in picking out which dog is right for me. I always know immediately even if it's just a picture of him. But knowing myself I knew no matter what I'd end up second guessing myself from time to time and have to remind myself to just listen to my heart and never mind what my paranoid brain was saying.

One of my brothers and I were talking about this when I was considering another dog but hadn't found Yoshi yet. He said that we all tend to believe that there should be a "Decent Interval" after a beloved pet passes away, but sometimes fate intervenes, and it just doesn't work out that way. He had recently lost a beloved kitty that he'd had for over a decade and was sitting in front of the TV wallowing in grief and gloom one night just a couple of weeks after she passed away when through the pouring rain outside he somehow heard plaintive mewling from outside his door, and low and behold there was a poor soaking wet baby kitty in the bushes next to his door, and of course he couldn't just leave it there getting rained on... suffice it to say the "Decent Interval" went out the window that night, and now a few years later he has another beloved kitty that he believes with all his heart was sent to him by some higher power that night because she was meant to be his. The moral of the story is that the "Decent Interval" isn't what it's cracked up to be, but your heart will just know... listen to your heart.

Maybe you and your boyfriend should take a trip out to the shelter to "just look". Your heart will know when the right time is and which dog is right for you. Listen to your heart... and stow some supplies in the car to bring a new fur baby home just in case because we all know what "just looking" tends to mean.