When one door closes another opens.

A few weeks ago I had to put my dog to sleep.  I got Lucy when she was a puppy and had her for 9 years before she got sick.  She was perfectly fine one day and the next she was deteriorating before my eyes.  The vet said she had diabetes and something wrong with her pancreas.  Even if I could have afforded to treat the diabetes, there was nothing we could do about her pancreas.  The vet said there was not a cure and a "treatment" would be overnight (3 days at a time) stays where they would basically starve her and give her an IV to make sure she didn't get dehydrated.  The reason for not feeding her would be to give her pancreas a rest, only for her to eat later and get sick (she was vomiting everything, even water at this point). It broke my heart but I knew it had to be done so the next day Lucy went to the vet to get put down.

This is my baby right before we loaded her
 into the car to take to the vet. You can see how sick and
 rundown she looks.  She did not look anywhere near
like that a few days before.

Every day after that when I would walk into my house there was an empty hole, like a blank space in a canvas.  My heart echoed the emptiness of my house.  It came to the point that I dreaded walking into my house, to not be greeted at the door, to see her dog hair stuck to everything (labs shed like crazy!).

I knew I wasn't ready for another dog.  It was too soon but I couldn't handle the emptiness any longer.  I needed someone to fill the silence and my empty heart.  I went to my local animal shelter three days ago and adopted this little ball of fur..

I named the kitten Phoenix (Nix for short) after one of my favorite book characters from Kresley Cole's Immortals After Dark series.  Nix is two months old and about two pounds.  He is calm and extremely affectionate to the point where you have to tell him, "leave me alone for two minutes while I try to eat!"  I love the little guy and know I made the right decision to adopt him.  

The pain from losing Lucy is still there and to some degree will always lurk in my heart.  However, out of the dark can come some light and I'm sure Nix would agree.  Without Lucy's passing, he might not have been adopted or have stayed in the shelter for an indefinite amount of time.  So, if your in pain from losing a pet of any species/breed, my heart goes out to you.  I'm not saying to go out and adopt/buy a pet, etc. but when one door closes, another one opens.  However it happens for you, it will happen.