I am grateful that thus far, nobody has made comments like "she was only a dog, how can you be *that* upset?" Trust me, I am. I'll forget for a while then it hits me all over again -- all I have of Alice is memories and then I collapse wherever I am. Andrea has been terrific, running to me as I lay keening in the corner, on the bed, at my desk, on the sofa, hunched in front of Rainie's crate in the kitchen. I'm never far from something that reminds me that Al is gone.

I am so lost without her.