Pawprint on My Heart

How does a heart heal when a beloved pet dies

Created on Midjourney

Laine was certain that if she could take her beating heart out of her chest and show it to her friends, they’d see it indelibly stamped with the huge pawprint Shadow had left there. But she couldn’t.

They saw neither the pawprint nor the gaping rent torn in that same heart by his death last winter. A very few—those who had themselves lost beloved fur babies—got it. Most didn’t.

“It’s been a year. Why don’t you just get another dog?”

“It’s only an animal.”

“You care more about that stupid mutt than about people.”

Fending off insensitive and often offensive comments had exhausted Laine to the point at which she had avoided, and then dropped some of her friends, keeping those who understood close.

But it had been a year and her heart was no closer to healing. Even her closest friends had started to suggest she might want to go for grief counseling. They were right that she needed to do something, though that something wasn’t counseling or getting another dog—at least not yet.

Laine’s heart clenched as she passed through the door of the animal shelter.