Let's Introduce Ourselves Options

[wchamilton]

After all of the support, sympathy and help you all have given me the past several days I thought I'd pop in here and actually introduce myself.

*ahem*

My name is William Clay Hamilton, but I go by Clay. I'm 38 years old and live in Chenango Forks, New York, and I work at a hospital here doing technical support. I'm married and have been with my wife since we were in high school, which is going on 21 years. We have an 18-year old son who's about to start his third semester of college.

We've always had animals. We have two lab huskies (we call them purebred Huskadors) named Miya and Takoda, and until this past Sunday we had a Doberman/Shepard/?? mix named Winston (RIP). We also have two black cats named Angel and Nala, but they literally are so identical looking that you can't tell them apart.

In our spare time my wife and I are avid video game players and we like to watch movies and are avid readers. I also play a bit of bass guitar and fancy myself to be an amateur photographer... I'm also a huge military aviation nerd; my wife and I took a weekend trip to Washington DC in May to see The Blue Angels.

Here's a picture of us that was taken last year at Disneyland.



And here's a sample of some of the pictures I took at the airshow in May::

[Cris-dogs]

Hi I am Cris.

I am currently almost 45 years old, and for most of my life have been single. I have a hard time getting close to people, but on the other hand, I have extreme empathy for dogs, to the point I worry about my friends dogs more than they do.

I've lost three of my own dogs in the last three or so years. Sally passed about three years ago after 11 years with me, Beau disappeared last November (assumed dead), and Fred died a week ago traumatically.

Each loss has seemed unbearable in the following days, weeks, but somehow life goes on, and the pain and loss somehow heals. Each time I couldn't imagine ever climbing out of the dark hole of sadness, but somehow I come out into the light again.

I set up an account here last week out of desperation to talk to someone about the loss of my buddy, Fred, just 7 days ago.
But it was just too painful to even talk about, so I started reading other people's posts about their losses.

I cried over and empathized with so many people's stories, and realized I wasn't alone at all.
It's so hard when the loss is so close and the wounds of loss, anger, sadness, depression rend so deep. When the quiet in the house is deafening.
Looking outside myself and my experience has shown me in the past and now that having empathy for others
and trying to help them makes my own pain less sharp, it gives me perspective.


It's great that this forum exists, because in my opinion, the best medicine for the torturous grief of loosing a furry companion is talking with and empathizing with others that have been through the same thing. For people that don't have support- live alone, seniors, lack of understanding in your social circle- this might be one of the few life lines available.

Grief feeds on itself. It's a vicious circle that keeps dragging you back into it. In my own experiences, the best way to break out of this is to focus outside myself, to GIVE, to console others, to offer my support. If we don't take care of each other, who is going to?

I wish all of you peace in your time of loss.

Cris