I hope shes okay

So sorry for your loss, Kelly.
Rest In Peace, Shyner.

And everyone is correct. Shyner did not die alone but surrounded by love -- human, canine and divine.

Good morning Kelly,

I've read your tribute to Shyner several times. I can feel your emotions.

My little black dog, well not so little, is sitting on the couch with me. She, too, has not much time left here with me. 13 years and change is a long time for a GSD. I thought we had lost her last month but back she came, more feeble, less stable, tired.

I can put Freya's name in your tribute, and not change another word.

It seems to me that a person can be defined by how they care for the wee creatures in their care. It seems to me Shyner was in the best of hands.

We never really lose our friend, and the memories soon turn from tears to quiet smiles.

I just wanted to say Kelly I am very sorry for your loss of Shyner, and to echo what everyone else has said: she didn't go alone, she died in her favorite spot, safe, secure, and not wanting for anything with her beloved people nearby. No fear, no pain, I'm positive she would not have wanted it any other way. Godspeed Shyner.

Just ran across this after being gone for a week. I am so very sorry for your loss, Kelly. You have given us all comfort and strength when we needed it, especially when we had to let our Tasha go a year and a half ago. I wish there was something I could do to ease your pain now in the same way. I can't think of a better place for Shyner to be when it was his time, in his comfortable place among those who loved him. RIP Shyner.

Dammit, this is hard...

I put her bowl in the cupboard today. I washed her rug and put it in the closet. I put her collar and leash in a box with those of my other lost girls.

And I cried. Lots. Each time I saw something of hers, each time I passed her spot on the floor, each time I heard the pack's chorus without her voice.

One of the hardest things I have ever had to do was take her body to the vet for cremation. It was so hard to leave her there. I felt like I was abandoning her or something. I had wrapped her in her favorite blanket and when I took her out of the backseat, one of the techs made an "aw" sound. I lost it. Right frickin there in the middle of the parking lot. I had driven an hour to get there. I had paid for the cremation. I had held it all together through all that... until that little sound brought me to my knees...

I get angry with myself for crying because I feel like I need to be strong. Paul told me that "even the mighty oak is swayed if the storm is strong enough." I am guessing it's OK to cry then...

The tears, they are for my loss, not hers. She is free of a body that was failing her. She is free of pain. She is no longer afraid of things. I know this. But I miss her. I miss her so damn much...

I want to thank you all for your kind words, thoughts, and prayers. You all mean so much to me, and knowing you have my back makes it a little easier to get through this. You are indispensable to me, and I am grateful to have you in my life.

I found this and thought it was fitting. It made me cry - but then everything does right now. I wanted to share it with you though. When you read it, think of my Shyner, and give your critters a hug in her name, OK?

Tribute To A Best Friend
author unknown

Sunlight streams through window pane
unto a spot on the floor....
then I remember,
it's where you used to lie,
but now you are no more.
Our feet walk down a hall of carpet,
and muted echoes sound....
then I remember,
It's where your paws would joyously abound.
A voice is heard along the road,
and up beyond the hill,
then I remember it can't be yours....
your golden voice is still.
But I'll take that vacant spot of floor
and empty muted hall
and lay them with the absent voice
and unused dish along the wall.
I'll wrap these treasured memorials
in a blanket of my love
and keep them for my best friend
until we meet above.

I can feel the pain. I do cry with you right now.

I cry for YOU. Im sorry i can't be there right beside you to cry with you.

I do NOT cry for Shyner. She is in peace. No pain, no thirst, or hunger, just peace. She is looking down at you.
What do you think she is thinking Kelly? IS she thinking:
"Mom, that is my old collar you are putting away. Hey guess what? I do not need one up here, there is no leash law! "

Even though i can logically understand your loss, and i cry. I know that i will never feel YOUR pain. Each and every loss, to each and every person is different. There is no such thing as an adequate measure of pain from a loss of such love. We all feel this pain differently.
Do what you need to do for yourself to heal from your wounds.

Don't forget your pack is watching you! ALL of them. Right now they all need you to not give up. Even the ones who are far away need you to take care of yourself.

Kelly, im sorry. I really am. Im not just saying this on some forum. I mean it. Im sorry. I mean it.

Shyner girl lived with one of the best owners ever in my mind. Lucky girl. She left her body in the safest most comfortable place in the entire world.

Oh, Kelly, now I'm crying, too. I'm crying for you, for Shyner, for the ones you've lost before her, for the ones I've lost, for the one I know I'll lose all too soon.

It's true, I can't possibly know how you feel, but I can say I understand the kind of pain you are going through, and my heart aches for you.

What a beautiful and mysterious thing, this bond between our two different species, so cherished and essential, this love between human and canine.

Oh, Kelly, it's always some gesture of sympatico from an empathetic person which touches us so deeply that it moves us to uncontainable mourning...

"Then I remember -- Until we meet above."

I have come to see over the decades that our own love for pets & other animals can teach even the hardest of hearts about His Love for us, and give hope for heaven to some who would otherwise scoff at the mere mention of an Eternal Reunion to come ... So this is yet another way in which our dear non-human companions on this journey serve us so selflessly!

That's a lovely poem.