Well, I've been thinking things over, and I'd like to do something to help Westie Rescue. I hope there's something I can do, as it could be a problem that I don't drive.

Hello
sorry to hear about loosing your dog, we lost ours in November 2006 and have not yet got over it. It is so hard when you loose them
We have not got another because we both work. I am going to get another as we have a dog walker but i know how your daughter feels. We have a grandog living with us at the moment and we shower here with affection

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Grandma to Jinja Dog, Mum to Tilly the Cavalier, Tattycat, Moomy, Choo, Sonic, Niven Mc Twisp and Lawna the rabbits and 1 guinea,17 budgies, 4 Cockatiels, 8 Goldfish.

Is it normal to feel that it would be wrong to get another dog? I really want one, and yet I can understand what my daughter means by saying it would be like a betrayal.

I can't say I don't want one, and yet I know that in a lot of respect it would be to help me get through this - maybe to pretend for a bit that I still have the dog I've lost. My daughter said that wouldn't be fair to another dog, but loving is loving - a dog wouldn't know that I was pining for another one, and in time, a new dog would inflict his own little character on us anyway.

I guess I'm confused.

In my experience another dog never replaces the one you have lost - how can it when their personalities are all so different? What a new dog does do is fill that awful empty gap - and within minutes of meeting your new dog you will find that you are loving him/her for his/her own sake, and not because he/she reminds you of your old dog. And the big plus is that you will find that your love for the one you lost will remain unchanged, so you will not feel disloyal. I'd say go for it girl!

Re the novel - the one I really must start sending out again is set in the sixties in San Francisco and is deals with the hippy culture and music scene around Haight-Ashbury. By way of contrast, the one I'm writing now is set in the world of dog showing - well, they do say write about what you know!

Yes and that's maybe a mistake we've made. Our novel has a lot to do with Irish Travellers, and I've found very few really good books about them.

That is exactly what i was going to say.

Go for it, the reason i haven't got one is that i spend two nights training dogs and i get my quota of dogs from that and the Grandog.

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Grandma to Jinja Dog, Mum to Tilly the Cavalier, Tattycat, Moomy, Choo, Sonic, Niven Mc Twisp and Lawna the rabbits and 1 guinea,17 budgies, 4 Cockatiels, 8 Goldfish.