My dogs died weeks apart – then the insensitive questions started
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When my dogs died, the first question on everyone’s lips was when I’d be getting another. ‘Time to visit your local shelter,’ read one response to my Instagram post after their deaths. ‘You need to get another whippet’ and ‘Don’t forget, there are lots of dogs out there who need people like you.’.
![[Jess Bolton: When my dogs died, I wasn't expecting to be told I should get another one]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SEI_230031827-424d.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
Amongst thousands of lovely, supportive messages, these were the ones that spoke loudest to me – and they hurt. Despite knowing I needed time to grieve my dogs, I began to feel guilty that I hadn’t rushed out to get another. My husband and I adopted our whippet, Jess, in 2018. She’d been mistreated and passed around so we set about showing her what a safe, loving home could feel like. Dogs are resilient creatures and, despite her past experiences, she loved my husband immediately and without hesitation.
![[Jess Bolton: When my dogs died, I wasn't expecting to be told I should get another one]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SEI_230032047-b526.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
We taught her to climb the stairs so she could share our bed, sleeping under the duvet with her bony legs poking into our backs. Jess came out of her shell around our friends’ dogs on walks and at the park, so we began our mission to find her a companion.
![[Jess Bolton: When my dogs died, I wasn't expecting to be told I should get another one]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SEI_230032051-7003.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
We adopted Otto, our Italian Greyhound, in April 2023. He was a five kilo bundle of character, chatty and nosy, and could often be found curled up against Jess’s side or snoozing under a blanket, legs akimbo. Like Jess, though, Otto was gripped by anxiety, so much so that he wouldn’t let us near him. Through working closely with a vet and a clinical behaviourist we discovered that his brain was overproducing stress hormones, leaving him in a constant state of fight or flight.
![[Jess Bolton: When my dogs died, I wasn't expecting to be told I should get another one]](https://metro.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2024/11/SEI_230032072-ec83.jpg?quality=90&strip=all&w=646)
