I loved you for your whole life, and I’ll miss you for the rest of mine. They say grief is just love with no place to go. It’s all the love you want to give but cannot. All that unspent love gathers up in the corners of your eyes, the lump in your throat, and in that hollow part of your chest.

I never imagined my life without Apollo in it. I didn’t grow up with pets – I was actually scared of dogs for most of my life.

Before you get a dog, you can’t quite imagine what living with one might be like; afterwards, you can’t imagine living any other way. Apollo gave us thousands of great days and only one bad one. He’ll never be replaced, and I know he’ll make me cry even when he’s been gone for more years than he ever could have lived.

Apollo had a way of finding the people who needed him and filling an emptiness they didn’t know they had. Because of that, Apollo was never just ours – he belonged to everyone.

Polly, I’ll miss you forever – meet you at the rainbow bridge.

Love, Mom