There is never enough time when you love something.

One of the hard parts of adopting a rescue animal is that you don't know all their history and they are usually older animals so that when you bond, it can be for a shorter time period. I'm learning this personally with a little rescue dog we adopted in May 2008. She was about 5 or 6, a toy poodle who had been mistreated and was very shy about people. But when she bonded with my husband and myself, it was a fierce bond the likes of which I'd never experienced. We became her world. Not just because we fed her, but because we didn't hurt her and I think that was a new experience for her.

Suffice it to say, I have never had a dog like Rissa, and I knew she was older so I would be lucky to have her 9 or so years assuming she lived to the same age as my other toy poodles, who lived to be 15 or 16. That was not to be.

Last July she was diagnosed with breast cancer. We did surgery and chemo (yes on a dog, but sometimes you have to do things that in the past you would have thought ridiculous). So the time frame slipped to the point we were looking at having her maybe another 2 years or so. Now it may be today that we lose her.

I don't regret adopting her but I am angry with the short time she was given to us and I only hope we made up for the abuse she had in the first part of her life. It hurts so much to love them and know they will leave you all too soon. I understand why people are leery of adopting an older animal because of this exact situation but they need us, oh how they need us. And they will give back more than you can imagine.

I love you Rissa and I will do what is right for you, that I promise you, little girl.