When Your Pet Dog Departs

Finished reading "Born To Bark" last night, ending with Stanley's Cairn Terrier - Flint - passing away. They have been companions for 13 years.

I would like to make a quick note of Stanley's closing words:

" Each dog is different. Each have two minds, one that belongs to his breed and another that makes him different from every other dog that has ever lived. The sad part is that none of my dogs has stayed around long enough for me to fully understand them, despite all of my psychological training. God gives us dogs to be our companions but demands them back after our short lease on their lives expires."

"...I am also comforted by a remembrance of something that Sir Walter Scott once wrote:

I have sometimes thought of the final cause of dogs having such short lives and I am quite satisfied it is in compassion to the human race: for if we suffer so much in losing a dog after an acquaintance of ten or twelve years, what would it be if they were to live double that time?