Our Sweet Puppy Girl Was Hit And Died Yesterday ... How To Cope?

Yesterday morning, my husband had a surprise extra day off of work, and we decided to treat our sweet Zoe to a trip to her favorite park. We just had a baby 4 weeks ago, and we were just starting to get adjusted to new parenthood and Zoe was just starting to adjust to the new addition. We thought that a trip to her favorite park on a beautiful day would be a great way for her to get her energy out.

We packed up Zoe and the carseat and the stroller and went to the huge off-leash park, where we spent over two hours taking Zoe to her favorite spots: she ran, she swam, she fetched sticks. We were out with our new family, feeling so proud and thinking about how wonderful it would be for the baby to grow up with our beautiful, happy, loving dog.

We were nearing the end of the walk, when suddenly, Zoe bolted away from us towards the road. We were over a quarter mile from the road, took our eyes off of her for a second to check on the baby, and suddenly she was gone. Zoe had never ever let us out of her sight before when off leash and always came when she was called. This time around, she was gone before we even noticed and didn't come back when we called her frantically and ran after her.

Zoe darted out into the road and was immediately hit by a car. My husband didn't see it happen but got there just in time to hold her and look into her eyes as she passed. I was holding the baby and could not run - I got there just after she died. It was very very fast, and probably painless. That's not much comfort, but it's all we've got.

I held my 4 week old son close to my as I screamed and sobbed and begged her to come back to us. But our poor sweet Zoe was gone before I could even get to her.

My husband and I are absolutely devastated. We loved Zoe fiercely - she showed us what it meant to be a family, and we both would have done anything for our sweet dog. She was a year and a half. We thought we'd have her in our lives for much longer, and we were so looking forward to our baby boy growing up with her.

It's been 24 hours, and the heartbreak is immense. We have a 4 week old baby to take care of and we're trying to be strong for him, but it's hard. My husband goes back to work on Monday and I'm feeling heartsick. I don't know how I"m going to handle being home the rest of my maternity leave and missing Zoe all day long. Everything in our house reminds me of her.

A terrible tragedy took our sweet girl from us far too young. I feel angry and guilty and overwhelmed and really horribly sad. Any words of support would be appreciated.

Debra