When my family had to put down my first dog Bailey in November, I told myself that I would never get over it, nor would I want to ever get a new dog.

My friend Dwight told me to not think about it as replacing Bailey, but as giving another dog the chance to have as great of a life as Bailey had.

While I tried my best to believe that, the one thing I realized that would remain true is that I will never get over losing Bailey, although I have accepted that she has been gone over the last two and a half months.

Your dog is your life, especially if you adopt the dog as young as I did. I knew Bailey nearly all my life, and even though I have come to terms with it, it is still weird not having her around.

Two months later, my family decided that it is time to give another dog a chance at having a real life.

Bailey sure set the standard pretty high for what we were going to expect in a dog, and we found that perfect dog Sunday.

The adoption center was not sure what kind of dog she was since she looked nothing like the mother, and they were not sure who the father was.

But she is a cute, little brown dog with black coloring around her nose.

She is two and a half months old.

One of the biggest clichés out there is “everything happens for reason.” It is just a more meaningful way to say it was a coincidence, because it makes it sound all emotional.

Nov. 8 was the day my family put Bailey down.

My world stopped the day that happened. I cannot describe the hole that it left, especially being here at Eastern and not being at home for Bailey’s final days. It was brutal.

But like they say, “everything happens for a reason.”

We needed the perfect dog; not one that looked like Bailey, but a dog with the same mannerisms.

When my family found my new puppy, we all said she acted just like Bailey; not too wild, very gentle with everyone and taking a treat out of our hand, almost exactly how Bailey did. That is very specific, but it was something about Bailey that always stood out.

Nov. 8 was the day my new puppy was born.

It sounds like a movie. I have not seen “A Dog’s Purpose,” but the way my sister described the movie was that it basically followed around one dog’s soul and how it kept coming back in different dogs.

I get to meet the new puppy Friday and I have felt like a little child waiting for Christmas this past week to go home.

I knew that I would never get over losing Bailey, my first dog, who I knew since I was 7 years old.

There is no denying that my family and this new puppy were meant to meet. Now, I do not have to worry about not having Bailey around, because I feel in some way that a little piece of her is in my new puppy.

Is it a cliché to say that? Maybe, but I don’t care.

Sean Hastings is a senior journalism major.

He can be reached at 581-2812

or smhastings@eiu.edu.