Too Soon For A New Kitty? Options

[Gracie's Mama]

It'll be three weeks tomorrow since my little Gracie died and while it has gotten a little easier, my boyfriend and I have run into the issue of getting a new cat. Because of Gracie's leukemia, we have to wait at least another week before we bring another kitty home so we're just testing the waters right now to see if the right cats (we're going to get 2 this time) are out there. But it is so unbearably lonely in the apartment without her. My bed feels so empty without her beside me, my lap feels cold without her curled up in it, and I don't know what to do to keep my hands busy without her soft, fleecy fur to pet. I even miss her standing outside the bedroom door in the morning, practically tapping her paw impatiently as she waited for breakfast! I feel like I have no purpose without a cat. But what if I'm mistaken and it's just that I feel like I have no purpose with Gracie? That may sound sort of lame, but I can remember how she would look up at me and her eyes would be filled with so much love and trust and I knew - at that moment - that I meant as much to her as she meant to me.

I don't feel like I would be betraying her memory by getting another cat, that's not really the issue. I just worry that I won't be as good of a mom to my next kitties as I was to Gracie. If you got a new pet after your furbaby passed, how long did you wait? Did anybody feel the same way I do?