The love, companionship, and loyalty that canine affection offers — I only came to truly understand thanks to my partner, Daniel, who introduced me to this pure form of connection.

Flo was our first daughter. Our family was her, Daniel, and me. Flo was a heading dog with a distinctive trait that made her stand out: one eye was a bright blue, the other brown. She was the most obedient dog I’ve ever known. She went everywhere with us, exploring New Zealand from north to south in the back of the car, wind on her face — just the way she loved it.

Yet the way she lived seemed proportional to the short time she had. It was as if she somehow knew life would be brief — and so she chose to live it fully.

It all began when Flo was six years old and started having seizures. At first, they were very occasional, but within a few months, they became more frequent. Then came the day she had four seizures in a single day — and everything started to change. From that moment, we began a strong medication regimen, but even so, the seizures became recurrent.

I remember well the nights I woke up to hold her during her seizures. A week before she passed, we had gone into lockdown (it was August 2021), which meant veterinary clinics weren’t operating normally. That week, I went from heaven — still holding on to the hope of a miracle — to hell, watching her grow weaker and blinder with each seizure. Seeing her that way was agonizing and heartbreaking. What tore me apart was not being able to explain to her what was happening, and feeling utterly powerless to help.

There was no way to postpone it any longer. We scheduled an appointment with the vet, who, due to the lockdown, couldn’t receive us inside the clinic. The moment of taking her from our home to the veterinary clinic — I can say with certainty — was one of the most intense moments I have ever lived.

Grief is devastating.

It’s harder for those who stay than for those who go.

It was there, on the sidewalk of the clinic’s parking lot, that she left us. It was the emptiest, most abysmal day of my life. If there’s one good thing that experience taught me, it was empathy. When we go through moments of such profound pain, our hearts expand to feelings we never imagined could exist. Before, I used to feel something when someone said they had lost a pet — but now, I don’t just feel it, I remember it.

Two weeks after Flo’s passing, Daniel had already started talking about adopting another dog. To me, it felt too soon — I was still processing my grief. I would still wake up at night thinking I could hear Flo needing our help.

But two more weeks went by, and there we were, on a farm, adopting a new member of the family.

It was Sky — daughter of a heading dog and a German Wirehair Pointer, born from a litter of eleven puppies. The owner told us something that struck me deeply: pointing to the dog nursing the puppies, she said that wasn’t their mother, but their grandmother! The mother had grown exhausted from feeding, so her own mother began producing milk naturally to help her with the litter. A beautiful proof that love multiplies and transcends hierarchies and generations.

While we were there, the owner mentioned that Sky had been born on a Wednesday, but we didn’t ask for the exact date. A few weeks after bringing Sky home, we found ourselves wondering about her exact birthday, since we didn’t know. When we asked the breeder, she told us it had been exactly eight weeks since Sky was born — meaning Sky had come into the world on the very same day Flo had left it.

Since then, the bond with Sky — or Pokie, as we call her, for her habit of poking her nose into everything — has become spiritual.

If our lives pass in the blink of an eye, our furry companions’ lives are but a fraction of that blink. Perhaps that’s why they’re born already knowing what we spend a lifetime trying to learn. Only those who have a dog know how real and genuine that bond truly is.

May we learn from them to slow down and feel the miracle hidden in the everyday — the gaze, the joy, and the companionship they share with us — a simple love, just as it is. In this relationship, only we know it will one day come to an end, and what will remain is only the memory of the life we shared together — like tiny drops of eternity falling from their time into ours.

Thanks to Lindi, who did a photoshoot with me and Pokie. With sensitivity and care, she captured moments that reflect the love and companionship between us — images I will cherish as a living record of our connection.

And you? Have you ever felt that kind of love? What has it taught you?

With love,