How soon to adopt a new best friend is such an individual choice, isn’t it? For me, the balm for having to say goodbye to a feline friend is to go get another rescue from my favorite shelter. But for others, I’m sure it’s not possible to move on so quickly. So how is it for you? Does it depend on whether you have other critters in your life? What’s your timeline for acquiring a new pet after the loss of an old one?
Right away
After a short time
Maybe, given enough time…
Never, can’t do it again
I hadn’t been planning to, but this new one showed up and insisted
I think we waited almost a year after Velcro passed. We fostered little Dot with the idea of adopting.
She was too young too adopt, we started with bottle feeding. We also nebulized her for nearly a month. That little kitten lived a pretty long time with her respiratory issue. She left us as we were wondering how much longer she had. This was only 2 years ago.
No real plans to adopt another cat at this point.
We also had Beauty along the way. When she passed, we were in a stretch of fostering kittens, not intending to adopt. That was a lot of fun. But it was hard giving them up.
We were getting ready to move, and were stopping the fostering when my daughter brought home Sammy who was probably 3 months old. This little guy was affectionate and very trainable. We ended up foster failing. He’s now our only pet. Grew up to be a big boy, 16 pounds.
When our dog Becky passed we decided not to adopt a new dog. The kids were grown and we thought we’d be doing more traveling.
We lost our dog Buddy in 2024 after 18 nice years of having him around. Mrs. Odesio said she never plans on getting another dog. I voted maybe, because I’m open to the possibility, but I’m in no hurry.
When Gideon (a stray we took in in early 2010) died, in late 2021, we were already talking with a neighbour about taking one or two of her kittens. We brought three of them home that afternoon, to see which one we liked best, and ended up keeping all three.
I went with maybe if given enough time. Our dogs have both been gone for a few years now and at first I thought I could never. Maybe some day, but it’s good we did not. My husband has had serious health issues, and we have become a one income family. It would be so hard to give a pup the care that he needs.
DH and I have had four cats in our married life. When Felix went to the Bridge, we went to the shelter and adopted Allie a few days later, being unable to stand the cat-shaped hole in our family. When it was Allie’s turn for the Bridge, we already had had Buddy as an established household member for several years, with a stray kitten we’d met recently making it clear she wished to move in with us.
That kitten is now known as Kasya. We’d been discussing taking her to the shelter for a chance at her own home, since our lease restricts us to two pets (for some reason, the bird doesn’t count), but Allie’s passing left a vacancy Kasya was ready and willing to fill.
I’ve always thought that the best way to honor the memory of your former pet is to take a trip to your local animal shelter and adopt another. There are lots and lots of animals of all ages who need a home and the love and attention you can give. Some are young and some are more mature and lost their home and their human through no fault of their own. There’s sure to be one that needs you.
We had a cat for 16 years before she passed on. We decided to wait a while. Someone said to me “When the time is right, one will find you.” About six months later, a male cat about a year old showed up on a friend’s front porch. She tried to find the owner but no one claimed him. He had a respiratory issue and we think he was dumped by someone who couldn’t or wouldn’t deal with it. We took him in, got him cured, and had him for 17 years. He was really my buddy. I still think of him.
If you’re truly a pet person, you can never be long without one.
For me it really depends on circumstances, and I’m likely to be faced with this question in the next few years. I prefer dogs over cats, and currently have a Parson Russell Terrier that is a great little dog. I got him as part of my divorce and we currently live in a beautiful house on 1.3 acres in a small West Central town in Montana. He’s been a very healthy dog, but is now starting to show his age, which is 13. I took him to the vet this past week for a check-up and while in general the vet was happy with him, he had lost 2 pounds or almost 10% of his body weight in the past year. He ran some blood tests and his liver enzymes weren’t where they should be. He told me not to be too worried, but that it was something we needed to keep an eye on. I asked him how long I should expect him to live, and he replied he’s well past middle age. He could live to be 20, but that’s not very likely. In the event he were to get seriously ill, I won’t hesitate to put him out of his misery, he’s had an amazing life for a dog, but I’m not looking forward to making that decision. What happens after that? I have plenty or room and time to adopt another dog and start over, but at 71 years old I don’t want to make another 13-year commitment to another dog that I need to walk at least twice daily and that needs lots of exercise, like my current dog does. OTOH, I sure don’t want to live alone without a pet to talk to. I guess I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.
I think the longest I’ve gone without a pet since I was a kid is one stretch of roughly three years in the early 2000’s. I’ve currently been petless for a few months after my last cat had to put down at about 19 1/2 (and I’d had him since he was about a 12-week-old stray). So after nearly twenty continuous years with cats, first two then one, I’m good with a break. It’s much cheaper, vastly more convenient for traveling, many little thing like hairballs/vomit/“accidents”/having to watch doors/cat hair on everything/emergency vet trips/etc. are avoided. So I appreciate being pet-free for now.
But I assume I will get one (probably two) again at some point. A year. Or three. Or just serendipity along the way. At the end of the day I like having them more than I dislike the inconveniences, costs and mess. Just a matter of when the novelty of being pet-free again wears off.
My experience is mostly with rats, which is a rather different situation than dogs and cats. Rats are social animals and really need to have cage mates. I would typically have 3 to 5 rats at a time. When one or two die and the number gets down to 2 or 3, I’d get a new one or two to replenish the family. There was only one time in the last 15 years when I let the whole mischief die out and was ratless before getting a new batch. I guess crazy cat ladies people with multiple cat/dogs might do something similar, and bypass the question of “how long” between pets.
I’m 77 and making it a point for almost a decade now to adopt only older shelter cats, as old as in their middle teens, even with health issues. The latest two I’ve adopted are actually eight and six years old, which is younger than I’d prefer, but the elder was the oldest the shelter had on hand, and so afraid of everything (came from a 50-cat hoard) that I took the younger cat, who’s friendlier with me, to give the fraidy-cat an emotional support buddy.
Not only that, adopting a new pet for me is like a new beginning. Even if the previous pet has passed away, I think it would surely hope to have a new person to accompany me as my master. It doesn’t want to see me alone and lonely, especially when living alone. Such loneliness becomes more obvious. Although I haven’t had a pet for some time, once I finish this period of being busy, I will definitely consider getting a new one. Whether it’s a dog or a cat, that’s something that still needs to be decided.
Yes, not only humans need companionship. Pets also need companionship. It’s not just the companionship from the owner. The companionship among the same species can sometimes be more effective. You are a very caring person
Wow, I’ve never kept mice before. How do you usually handle the situation when the mice die? What should mice pay attention to in daily life compared to cats and dogs?
I agree with you. No matter how you look at it, even though pets bring us some inconvenience, we prefer having them over enduring the inconvenience, expenses and mess they cause. Especially when I live alone, this feeling becomes even more pronounced. I need a pet’s company. After a busy day, when I get home from work, I can play with it to relieve my loneliness when I’m alone.
For me, the time between pets shortens with the passing of each pet. I’m on my 5th dog, and when the first died, it was about 2 years before I got another one. When that one died, it was about 8 months. Afterward, about 6 months, then 4, and I adopted my current dog 2 months after number 4 died.
Most of our cats have lived reasonably long lives, the youngest one we lost was 10 years old. All the others have been in their late teens or early 20s when they passed. I volunteer for a local cat rescue charity that is entirely home-based so the question for me is not so much how long I’d wait to have another pet, it’s how quickly the rescue has someone who needs a foster home!
We were down to only one cat a couple of years ago, then fostered two youngsters (2.5 years old) which we then adopted because they settled so well with us. Now we have a third foster cat (12 years old). The house just feels empty without little feline paws.
I had a Velcro as well! Sweetest orange kitty. He passed semi-suddenly with heart failure. My other cat, Rocket J. Squirrel, was clearly miserable as an only cat. Had it been just up to me, I’d have waited longer because I was heartbroken over Velcro. So I adopted Juno about a month after losing Velcro. Rocket took to her immediately, which was great.
These two are 6 (Juno) and 8(Rocket) now with no obvious health problems. I’m 52. I don’t know what I’ll do when these two are gone - I could see adopting a senior cat, but after Juno I don’t know that I want a kitten again. 12 weeks old was still a baby!