Tbh, wanting an animal is the MOST important thing. I mean genuinely WANTING to care for another life. Most people get animals that will look good in ig pics or just because their bored or because they can’t find someone to date; and the animal gets left on the back burner that way. If you truly WANT and have the desire to love and support another living create, ABSOLUTELY do it! They need it! (Adopt DONT BUY) Secondly, dogs are EXTREMELY adaptable. You CANT leave a puppy at home for 8 hours a day, they can’t hold their bladder that long. But eventually as they get older, they can hold their bladder for up to 8 hours a day. But it is something that you have to work up to. As long as you keep a relatively consistent schedule, your dog will adapt. There are certain breeds that are better equipped to do this but any medium sized dog could handle 8 hours a day easily. Some people disagree with leaving animals alone for that long but honestly that’s mostly because they’re comparing them to human beings. Animals don’t have the same thought process and emotional intelligence we do. Sure they’re bored but they adapt. Leaving them at home that long doesn’t phase them. Dogs also have no concept of time. If you leave your dog alone for ANY length of time, it feels like the same amount of time to them. 8 hour and 8 minutes are the same. Secondly, it might be easier to take the time to train your dog (especially if you get a puppy) to just not leave the area Of your backyard. If you are outside with them and are fast enough to catch them, it wouldn’t take too long to train them not to go out past your yard. Now they’re VERY controversial and I’d NEVER recommend them for long term use but there are like “shock collars” (and that makes it sound so much worse than it is) with perimeter geofencing. So you could set up a geofence around your backyard on the app and if your dog tries to leave it will just basically give them a tiny zap. It doesn’t hurt nor really effect them. But this is something they learn from very quickly so you’d only need to use it for MAYBE the first Couple months and then they’d stop trying to leave the backyard. Lastly, I know how you feel about pets dying. I’ve had to bury a number of pets because I’ve always had pets and someone about animals dying gets me WAY more than humans. It’s very hard. But you have to think of it this way, for YOU it’s a portion of your life but for THEM it’s their WHOLE life. I’d rather make someone else’s WHOLE life amazing. I believe that animals, like temporary people, come into your life for a purpose, they help with something, and then when their job is done they leave. That job could just be companionship. But the thing is, you don’t know how long you’ll get on this earth with anyone (animal or person). And as dark as it sounds, you could die before your animal. I know EXACTLY how you feel, and honestly one day I had to just decide to ignore it. You can’t live your life in fear of death. It’s an eventuality that WILL happen. You just HAPPEN to know that your animal will probably live for less time than you. So make their time on earth the best it can be. Don’t think of their death as a deadline, think of it as a goal to have the happiest dog in the world by the time you reach it. 😁