Your Pet Loss Diaries

'Patti & Bailey', USA

About Bailey

Bailey my Jack Russell Terrier, the little kind with the little legs whose front paws looked like mittens. They were the cutest paws I have ever seen in my life. He had the cutest floppy little ears and the most lively eyes that spoke volumes.

When did you lose Bailey?

3 days ago.

At which stage of pet loss grief do you feel you are currently at?

Anger and depression, bargaining in the morning. I hate to open my eyes. I keep hoping I'll feel him next to me while I'm in that stage between wakefulness and sleep.

Patti and Bailey's Story so far

I rescued Bailey from a group who had gotten him out of a shelter in Ohio when he was 2 yrs old. I love dogs and had wanted one for so long, it hurt. He came right before Thanksgiving 2004 a few months after my life was blown to shreds, but that is another story. When he first came he didn't wag his tail for a week ! He just walked around with it straight up in the air.

I hadn't had a dog since I was a kid and this was going to be a learning experience. Finally he started wagging his tail and had a very happy tail ever since. I realised that he was scared and wasn't sure what to think of me. See, he was a jack russell and smart as heck, it didn't take him long to see me coming a mile away. He knew I didn't know the first thing about discipline, so he proceeded to take complete advantage of that until slowly I learned to be the pack leader to which he fought against every day of his life to regain. Like I said he was a JRT through and through.