The one here is no-kill. We put down about 10 dogs a year, most for health reasons but a few very extreme temperament reasons. Those losses are incredibly hard for me. What I do to help deal with the pain is just get myself out of bed, get to the shelter, and help as many dogs as I possibly can in the name of the dog that was recently lost. I counsel people on shelter dogs to ensure that if they adopt one of our dogs, we will never see it in the shelter again. It really helps to go do your work in the name of a lost dog. You'll find yourself working extra hard that day, and although the pain is still there, you feel better because you know that you helped save other lives because of that special dog who was sent to Rainbow Bridge before its time. Now, if I had to deal with it on a daily basis, I'd be in the fetal position.

But one of the girls that works at the Humane Society and I promised ourselves that we would start volunteering at the kill shelter just once a month at first. We'll just walk them and play with them and clean them up, then leave. We won't come back for at least 2-4 weeks so this way we won't have to know what happened to them. I know that sounds bad, but the dogs there REALLY need some help and it is the only way we can handle it mentally.