But

I mean, there really is no right time, right? No, everybody, you know, we're all different.

Um, For me, because we have a mission in our heart to rescue senior dogs, when we lose one, we say, well, that opens a space financially and every other way that we can rescue another one when one comes along and one always comes along.

I mean, it might not be the next day or right away, but there's always a dog in need somewhere.

And if at some point one came along and it wasn't a golden retriever, of course, we'd think, is this the right dog for us, right? Is this the one who needs our help now? But I talked to people, some people said, oh, I had a yellow lab and I wanted another yellow lab and it had to be the same breed, the same sex, the same breeder, everything as close as possible.

Then I have people who said, I want a different breed, a different sex, a different size, a different color, as different as possible.

I don't want to be comparing in any way.

So was there one dog in particular that, like, when you wrote this book, you were like, oh, this, this is like, this is why I wrote this book, you know, or...

your own you

know right but me no I couldn't do that and then I mean a lot of people had some beautiful services I wrote about and I really loved the one where a family um took the ashes and they had a big property and they would they all walked along together where the dog liked to go on the in the property by a lake and they'd sprinkle a few ashes here and they said oh here's where he brought out a bear because at one time you know they had this memory and they'd walk a little farther and like here's where the dog would go swimming in the little pond here and they sprinkled a few there and You know, I think there's just so many beautiful ways that people have thought of to have a little service, a memorial or some sort of memorial thing after that can bring them comfort, a garden, a water feature, you know, a little shelf with a picture and whatever, you know, so.

Those are the type of things, there's so many ideas in the book about different ways people have memorialized and honored their dog afterwards that brings them comfort and joy and helps them to find a little peace and a little happiness.

Thinking upon the dog, not with the sadness, but finding a different way to move on and thinking back with a little comfort and joy.

Noah? He made sure that Noah,

you know, took pairs of animals.

You know, there are some scriptures in the Bible that might point to that, but it doesn't paint a complete picture of heaven anywhere.

You know, we don't know what we're going to look like, or are we going to be walking around on a cloud or, you know, where are we going to be? What are we going to be doing? It's not, it doesn't discuss all that kind of detail.

I know,

it's a lot.

It's hard for everyone.

We've had to face the decision.

And it's never, ever, ever, ever easy.

I know I've had the feeling like, oh my gosh, you trust me and look what I'm doing.

And it's, you know, it's just, it's so hard.

Um,

tell them tell everybody tell the people what that's about and and

you know yeah i mean they're especially with old dogs um and especially if they're ill any dog who's got a terminal disease or a serious illness sometimes you feel like you've already lost them because we had um our spaniel went through um canine cognitive disorder, dementia.

And, you know, it was like we lost her because she didn't act the same.

She didn't respond the same.

She didn't want to cuddle with us anymore.

And, but yet we're still taking care of her.

It was another couple of years, I think.

you

And just tell me a little bit about your background so everybody gets to know.

Well, I'm a, uh, contributing editor at Guideposts Magazine, which is inspirational stories, stories that, you know, help with your work on your faith and help you, um, just find positive ways of thinking of things.

And I've been writing for them, and I s- for 20 years, and I started, um, writing more and more about, you know, what inspired me, which of course was my dogs.

And, um, so I've written about, um, the, I say the human-animal bond, about why animals love us, especially dogs, and people who love animals and how they help them.

So the idea for this book, um, my husband and I have been rescuing senior dogs, and it started with, he saw a, um, an ad for the rescue group for this dog, and he just fell in love, and he's like, "I really want this dog.

I really want this dog." And I saw that the dog was 11 years old, and I said, "Oh, we can't.

We just can't rescue that dog.

Talk a little bit about that.

Really?

Really?Like Brooks, we named him Brooks, the first dog I told you about, and he had been abandoned.

He'd just been dumped probably because they knew he got cancer, and he was older, and, um, he had been down south roaming about nobody knows how long.

So there was no way to know where he belonged or what his name was, and that's the case for several of our dogs.

So we renamed them, and they have no trouble learning a new name, um, none at all.

And, um, you know, we just said that after we had Brooks, it was hard.

Then I said may- maybe puppy, you know, maybe a younger dog, and we thought about it, and we looked at some, and our heart just led us in the other direction.

That's right.

So let people know where in this lovely world you're based, and as always, what's your business with dogs?

Well, I'm in the United States in upstate New York, so I'm up, I'm not near the city, but in near the Adirondack Mountains, and it's beautiful country up here.

We're near, um, Saratoga, which is horse country.

And I grew up in Vermont, which is where my heart is.

I love Vermont.

It's, um, the Green Mountain State.

It's very, very beautiful and, uh, a lot of farmland.

... or those, those, those stories that you, that you live when, when you're out with the dogs? Do they, like, those kind of experiences feed each other?

How many retrievers have you guys rescued at this point?

We usually only have two or three at a time because we wanna be sure to have the resources to take proper care of them.

Um, and usually they need medical, veterinary care and everything.

Um, I think we've had about one, two, three, four, five...

Maybe six or seven or so.

Right now we have three senior goldens.

Pete, he's about nine years old now, and he is our therapy dog dropout.

So tell me about your experience with that guilt and what advice you have for others that are really struggling with that.