Introducing our new comapnion Jessie James

He is a 3.5yrs Golden Retriever & such a sook, we all love him.
We adopted him from a shelter last Saturday.
He is helping us to heal after the loss of my Buddy. (I hve posted a pic of Buddy in the "Tributes" thread)

YEH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just want to hug him. He is beautiful. His coat is absolutely gorgeous and if you look in his eyes you can see how happy he is to have a wonderful, loving new home. He is so lucky you picked him Elaine and you are blessed to have found a new baby to love. I am so proud of you... Have a wonderful time with your new love.

oh my gosh. these happy beginnings just make me cry. im such a loser. jesse james is so beautiful. just look at that face! im in love with him already. how blessed he is to be a part of your family now. i know ive said it a million times but i know that our loved ones that have passed have something to do with our new loves. i just think that they are "upstairs" grinning from floppy ear to floppy ear. jesse will bring such happiness to your lives and i cant wait to hear about all the wonderful adventures (ehem, trouble) he has please write about those too. i started writing about lucy's (ehem) adventures and stopped for a while because there were just too many (just this weekend she polished off a pair of my good glasses. all gone. well not really. just chewed them into about a million pieces. i am blind as a bat without them how could i be mad at a little girl whose tail was wagging so fierecely because she thought it was a toy. the only thing i could think of was i should have put some toothpaste on them so at least it could of cleaned your teeth WHILE you were destroying them i will start posting again...but most of all im so so happy for you. lucy and i send you hugs and hugs because we are so happy you are on your way to recovery. that doesnt mean forgetting buddy at all. recovery just means that your days are filled with more and more laughter and smiles. buddy will always be a part of your heart.

cheers to your new, beautiful, wonderful, sweet addition!
patricia

how is wonderful jesse james and mom doing?

very well thx Patricia, I cant believe that Jesse James is such a sook, he put his paws up on my legs whilst I was sitting in the lounge chair (he was sitting down too), then he put his paws up on my chest & laid his head down on me....it was amazing....I've never experienced that from a big dog b4.....he is very sweet.....he even took the liberty of sleeping on one of the kids beds the other day!!! I've told the kids not to let him do this....the kids made the comment that Jesse is more like a cat than our cat......
elaine

omygosh! how absolutely sweet. they are so intuitive. they know when we need hugs. sometimes i just wonder what we would do if we didnt have them in our lives.... it sounds like you have already bonded and all of you are so in love with each other. how wonderful! so are you going to let jesse keep sleeping on the bed i normally let my dogs sleep on the bed but this time lucy sleeps in her crate. there are some nights where that is just so hard cuz i want to hug and squeeze her...
jesse james the big cat love it.
have a great weekend and hopefully well talk next week. have a great first weekend with jesse. jesse be a good boy ok?
big big hugs to all of you and especially to your sweet boy.
patricia

hmm...Jesse James will even jump on the bed when my daughter is sleeping in it & mouths her hand gently if she moves to much or tries to push him off. I would like to let him up on the beds but GR's have a lovely strong doggie smell & I worry that it may sink into the mattress (even though of course it wont). I was sitting in the single seater lounge again & Jesse James just climbs up & makes himself comfortable!!!! I didn't let Buddy do this sort of thing so I'm not sure @ the moment what to do as of course I feel guilty if I let Jesse James when I taught Buddy not to do it. He is such a delight, I just cant believe how soon after the loss of Buddy that we got Jesse James. Just like you I am beginning to wonder what I would do if we didn't hve fur companions either.
Thank you for the hugs

i know what you mean. theres not a day that goes by that i cant believe how quickly i got lucy. it was only a week after...but like ive said before i believe that our little furry ones play a big part in what happens after they have gone. (like fred had a part in lucy's coming, like buddy played a part in jesse james joining your family).
i dont blame you for not letting jesse james up on the beds. yes im fully aware of the strong doggie smell. i finally had to get rid of lucy's (she hates baths so i tolerate it) but this weekend she smelled a bit tart .
its funny how you feel guilty about allowing jesse james to do things that you didnt allow buddy to do. i felt the same same way with lucy. i wondered if fred was watching me and wondering if i lover her more cuz i allowed her to do things that he couldnt do and so on. i came to a conclusion finally cuz it was eating me up. i figured that all of our furry friends are different. and also all of them are 100% pure love. they dont have a mean bone in their bodies so i think that fred is smiling and laughing and only cares that i am happy. what is so sweet is that they always know when we need their companionship dont they? im sure jesse james can feel when you need him the most and he just doesnt hesitate to sit right next to you. what a sweetheart.

as far as the hugs, well lucy and i are hug machines so take another please
we want to see more pix of our new friend.
patricia

wow Patricia, I'de forgotten that our fur companions are 100% pure love, you are so right, thankyou for the reminder it has helped me a lot.
I also am still surprised that Jesse James came into our lives so soon after loosing Buddy, again I agree that I'm sure our fur companions have a paw in arranging our new fur companions for us.
I feel sorry for ppl who dont hve such companions in their lives, it sure out weighs the pain of their loss, (I can say that now, but boy oh boy in those first few dark days!)
I look forward to hearing about you & Lucy too.
elaine

me too! i wish people could realize that these wonderful companions bring such joy to everyone. i would just shrivel up if i was told i couldnt have another furry friend. although i gotta tell you, last nite, after lucy chewed up my arm; pretty much down to hamburger, for a second, thought how grateful my arm would be without her but that didnt last long at all
but youre so right. oh those first few days, the first few hours, minutes after they are gone. dark days is putting it mildly. i cant even find words to describe how horrible it is. ive told some of my friends that (and having gone thru a couple of painful surgeries) that id rather go thru surgery without the anasthesia than to go thru that pain that weve all been thru. there is nothing like it. but im glad i have friends like you to hold me up and hold my hand.

thinking of you and jesse james. have a good day my friend.
patricia

Thank you that you aren't one to say "I'll never have another"! I read James Herriot's 'All Creatures Great and Small' when I was very young, and I have a copy of his 'Dog Stories' which I reread after my Bitsy died. He strongly urged his clients not to wait to get another pet, but to share the love you had for your lost one with another pet! This advice has always stayed in my mind, and shortly after Bitsy passed, I got a little female Jack Russell named Fancy Pants.

Fancy is exactly what my family and I needed, a complete opposite of Bitsy Bug. Whereas Bitsy was totally devoted with me, and totally dependent on me, Fancy is stubborn, obstinant, fiercely independent, and gives her love on her terms only! We love her dearly already! I would not have been able to get another chihuahua this soon, as I would have unfairly been constantly comparing it to Bitsy. There will only have been one Bitsy Bug, and I will never let another dog "replace" her, but I CAN give the love that I had for her to Fancy!

Sorry for the long post, but I hope that people realize that losing a loved one doesn't preclude ever loving another!

Hope you and Jesse spend many joyous hours together!

Andy

hope your arm is still usable Patricia, lol
I really didn't think i would be able to love another companion ever, I remember reading something on this site (maybe a post from someone, i'm not sure) that said don't close your heart to love just cos you are hurting so much, be open to all possibilities & that's exactly what I did and hey presto along comes Jesse James.

It is lovely that we can hve a fur companion the complete opposite to our companions who have died & still love them. I remember when I was checking out dogs thinking what sort of dog wold suit our family. I looked @ the same cross breed as our Buddy but realised that i would forever be (unintentionally) comparing the two of them, so i started looking @ all sorts of breeds & the kids had said they wanted a medium size dog, like our Buddy, well the rest is a happy family once again. I still find myself saying to my family "oh Buddy used to do that too", though I don't feel I'm comparing them so much as enjoying the comapionship of a dog again.

You know Patricia I'm with you, life without our companions wld be very sad indeed.

thank the Lord for his wonderful creatures & thanks to my new friends for helping me through a most traumatic time, i can't believe I've survived it, but I have.
Thank you to all of you for your words of comfort it has been and will continue to be a part of my life dropping in here to see whats happening & how we all get thru our sad times.

Here's to new beginings & and our eternal love to our companions who have crossed the rainbow bridge.
elaine

hi elaine.
how are you doing? are you ok? i was reading someones post and saw your reply that you werent feeling that great...
just concerned...
patricia

Thx patricia for asking, I'm doing it tough @ the moment. car broke down on my way to see my daughter perform in a dance concert an hours drive from hme & has been @ mechanics since last Thursday, they shld b looking @ it today, hopefully. The kids are hving to walk to school, just like in the old days. hehehehe!!!!
And then I come down with thyroiditis, an inflammation of the thryroid gland, very painful to swallow & no energy....I cant even walk the kids to school, I've had to get my brother in law to do that for me. I've got some more tests to hve to find out what the cause is, viral, or the gland not working properly.....all without a car.....that's life!!!
Jesse James is keeping me company, he has settled in really well, he just has to be with someone, he doesn't like being outside on his own. He's even started answering the cat back now, it's hilarious!!!!! cheers me up, he comes & sits beside me @ the computer too, it's nice to hve him so close by.
Enough of my woes, how are you going?
elaine

sweet boy. his photo just gave me the chills. im so glad hes with you and your family. im so sorry to hear about the car. not having one? oh thats the worst. it just throws "life" off doesnt it? i hope you made it to your daughters concert though...
oh thats rough about thyroiditis. i had an issue with the thyroid gland last year and boy it wasnt pleasant. but my mantra is "this too shall pass!" i keep telling myself that all the time. especially when it seems like its just going downhill fast. so keep telling yourself that and before you know it things will be back to normal - whatever normal is right?
im doing great. i feel so blessed that i have a job, in light of the economic situation, so just working hard and working hard to get home to my lucy. i just thank god every day for her. she has helped me heal so much. we are so blessed and sometimes just need to take a moment (especially when it gets rough) to count our blessings. its so easy to get down in the dumps isnt it? you have some wonderful blessings in your life: your entire family (jesse included

well i hope things start getting back to the way they were for you soon. hope you can take the test soon, cuz the sooner they find out the cause, the sooner they can fix it! let me know how youre doing ok?

youre in my thoughts and prayers always!

big hugs from lucy and me!
patricia