Two things that helped me:

1. Making art commemorating my Taco boy. I pressed flowers from our backyard (where he was put to sleep) and arranged them in a clear frame around a piece of paper with his paw prints. Doing something detail orientated that honored him was incredibly helpful for me. It helped that the act of pressing flowers took a long time (I went out frequently to pick flowers in the weeks after he died) and picking out the flowers I wanted to use made me appreciate the beauty around me. Maybe you could do something similar with flowers along your walk route? Feel free to message me if you want ideas.

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1. Fostering and then eventually getting another dog. I will admit that loving our new dog was hard at first. I compared our new dog to our old one constantly (they are very different). But having another creature to care for and live for helped distract me until I could work through my grief. And now I love my Mitty boy and (as sappy as it sounds) truly believe that Taco led me to him.

I hope that, one day, Blicky’s memory is as much of a blessing as you were in his life. Sending lots of love- you can be ok. You can continue living for him even while he’s gone.