How Do I Say Goodbye?

Dear Simba,

Tomorrow will be exactly a month since you’ve been gone. Even that’s hard for me to say without tearing up. The tears are flowing as I sit here, think about you, and type my feelings out. I know you wouldn’t want me to be sad, but how do I say goodbye?

You are my first child. I know you’re a dog, but what’s understood doesn’t have to be explained. You’ve never been “just a dog”, you’re family. You know and everyone that has met us knows you are my baby. Starting my adult life with you made our bond so strong. You were here with me for every big milestone in my life so far. Explain to me how I just move on without you…

It randomly hits me like a ton of bricks that you’re not right here by my side. The smallest things make me think of you. Sometimes I even forget that you’re gone for a split second and then realize I can’t do this or that with you anymore. You were my shadow. Wherever I went you would follow and I miss that so much. It felt so weird walking through the door without you for the first time.

It’s hitting your dog dad just as hard. He has those moments where it hits him out of the blue too. We talk about you all the time. He really misses his boy. It has definitely been a tough time for the entire family.

You know I brought your lil’ buddy Zuri home two years ago to help prepare us for when you would no longer be here. I hated to think about it, but as I saw you age, I thought about it more and more. The new puppy definitely put some pep in your step. I truly believe she helped you live longer. You tried your best to keep up with her. She made you feel like young Simba again. You’d be so proud of her. She’s been helping us a ton, especially the kids. She’s not you though…I’m just saying! You can never ever be replaced. But I’m glad she’s here.

Just to let you know, she’s missing you too. She was looking for you and you were nowhere to be found. She’s been wondering where you are and she doesn’t like to be alone. She always had you and now you’re gone. We are helping her deal with your loss too. I originally didn’t think about her having to deal with losing you too until I saw your health start to decline more and more. That makes me sad that’s she’s sad too. But we will get through it.

Everybody loves you Simba! You’re getting so much love from everyone on social media and they are missing you too, but don’t worry…I’ll continue to share you with them. I’m so glad I documented my life with you. I wish I had more puppy videos, but you puppy pictures will have to do. I guess I wasn’t really recording like that back in 2012, but from 2013 and on…I have so many videos of you that I’ll cherish and share forever.

When I brought you home, I knew that your only fault was that your life was going to be too short for me. I knew I was going to want more time and whatever time I had with you would never be enough. But to you, your life wasn’t short at all…it was full.

The truth is…I know you would never want to live without me. If I left you first, it would hurt you way too much because you would always be looking for me and waiting for me to come back, but I never would. So…maybe a dog’s life is so short so they don’t have to experience a life without us in it. That brings me comfort when I look at it that way, but you’ll still be forever missed.

I love you my good boy, take your rest, until we meet again!

Here’s a video of my talking about losing Simba, how my family is coping, and how our puppy is helping us heal. I’d love you to like and comment on the video. Let me know how you cope with a huge loss like this.

Please SUBSCRIBE to my DogMomPOV YouTube channel and be on the lookout for more dog mom videos now that I’m back posting more regularly after such a huge loss. Click HERE for some dog mom videos that will bring you joy. Simba’s in most of them :)

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