I once had a dog named Olive. She was really our son's dog, but she quickly became the family dog; no scratch that, the family little girl. Olive was a 20 lb Coc-a-poo who thought she was human, and I'm not ashamed to say, we treated her as such. She was smart as a whip, had so much energy and was the most loving creature. Olive taught us all to love unconditionally, to find joy in the midst of pain, for even after an awful day, to come home to her pup hugs and kisses made everything all right. Early 2014 we learned Olive had stage 3 lymphoma. We did everything we could to help her, from chemo to holistic medicine. We made a pact that if she exhibited pain or any kind of suffering, we 'd stop treatment. We never had to, Olive was a trooper, she fought cancer every inch of the way, for she wanted to be there for us. Sadly, she lost her battle on Oct, 11, 2014, 5 hours after my mother passed away from her own illness. I'd like to think my mom came back to get her, to show her the way. Olive simply looked up, threw her back and she was gone. I recently moved from NY area, and although I have thought about getting a pup, have not done so as yet. Maybe, it's because I don't want it to spend time alone (guilt), maybe its because I can't thinking of "replacing" our girl. All I know is there's a hole in my heart, because once you've been a pup parent, you crave that love always. Walking pups would be a good compromise. I know this, because my son, who is 23 and in his last year of college in NYC, has become a dog walker, and I can see that it has helped him tremendously.