Quote Originally Posted by JohnMichael
Well we have been home for an hour now.
What a sweetheart.

I love dogs, (and other animals). We've had two dogs in recent years. My wife has proved most of the care, but when the first died about five years ago, I suffered an unanticipated and almost debilitating grief for serveral days ... "but he's only a dog".

Granted, his death of cancer was sudden. I'm appalled to realized that when my mother died last year at I felt less immediate grief than for the dog, ( is this terribly, terribly wrong?). In her case is was clear for several weeks before that her heart issues were catching up with her at age 91, though the precise date & time of her death were also unpredicted.

A mature dog sounds like a good choice in your case certainly. Puppies are a great deal more work, and though adorable, they don't stay puppies for very long.