Losing a pet is an emotional experience. In the last month, several of my friends have had to put down their aging, sickly dogs.

In late September, my friend Mickey said good-bye to his 20-year-old terrier, Tootsy. It was a decision he had been painstakingly considering for months. Tootsy was in bad health, and it was time.

Tootsy was more than a pet to Mickey; he was a member of the family.

Mickey inherited Tootsy from his mother many years ago, not long after she was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease. His mother, now deceased, loved her little wire-haired dog, who was her constant companion. Since then, Tootsy had become a constant reminder, a connection, to his late mother.

Mickey posted a good-bye to Tootsy on Facebook. The responses from his Facebook friends were compassionate.

"Man, sorry to hear that," wrote one friend. "If we didn't love 'em so much, it would not hurt so bad."

A colleague and friend, Anne, had to put down her 13-year-old Lab a couple weeks ago. She cried for days. Jack, a big, yellow dog, had been a loving, faithful pet.

Jack, too, had been ill. He had reached the point where he could no longer eat or stand. She and her husband knew it was time to put Jack out of his misery, but it was a difficult decision to make.

I fear the decision of putting a dog down is going to happen sooner rather than later in my own life. Poka, my 12-year-old Chihuahua, has Addison's Disease and has been on daily medication for nearly two years. Without medication, she will die. Lately, she's had some bad days. A couple of weeks ago, I thought she might not make it through the night. She has a wonderful veterinarian, though, who keeps close tabs on her health and gives her just the right treatment to get her up and going again. I'm hoping she's got some years left.

Nobody has to be lonely. Any responsible/compassionate person can adopt a dog or cat and fill a void in his or her life.

English novelist George Eliot (aka Mary Anne Evans) said it best. "We long for an affection altogether ignorant of our faults," she wrote. "Heaven has accorded this to us in the uncritical canine attachment."