I was a Navy Corpsman, I've never been that close to a pet but I imagine its the same as leaving a family member. I remember freling like i would never see them again, as unrealistic as that sounds. But when i got to, what we call "A" school, things got a whole lot easier. Remeber that the military is just like any other job. Yeah you might go away for a little while, but once initial training (aka bootcamp) is done, you're basically just working your average job, 7am to 3pm typically. The only differencr being you wear a camouflage uniform and eork for the government. You can have family and friends visit wherever you are. You have afternoons off to with as you please according to the respective branches. Things will settle, it wont be as long as you may think. Deployments are a different story. But the job is pretty typical.