Hey thanks everyone for all the nice thoughts and sentiments shared. It's been a help to hear so many others have had to face the same thing. ("A trouble shared..." and all that).

I don't think we'll be getting another dog anytime soon. We've only had two but they lasted us 26 years between the two of them with just a 6 month break between the first 'going' and the second arriving. After 25 1/2 years of picking up or standing in dog turds on the front lawn I've had enough.

So what's next? Well I got home from work yesterday and there at the bottom of the shopping list on the kitchen wall, a daughter had written 'a new kitten'.

We'll see.

Oh, and Beemer ... he wasn't exactly a cat lover but he did live in peace with each of the three cats we had during his time.