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"I found this in Grandpa's pictures." My 12-year-old niece, Nicole, said as she handed me the 15-year-old photograph. It is a picture of my dog, Natasha, and me, posed in a chair. I look at Natasha in this photograph. She was the only one of a litter of pure bred shelties to survive a particularly horrible abuse situation.

Without warning, I burst into tears. I flash to the little things about Natasha. The white line down her face. The way she licked everything she saw or touched. How she mothered all the fosters that came through our house over the years. She kept them in line too. We laughed that it was probably harder for these fosters to leave her than it was for them to leave us. The way she patiently waited at the bottom of the stairs to be carried up when it was time to go to bed. This was after the arthritis made it too painful for her to navigate steps anymore. And I remember the smell of her as I would bury my face in her fur when I told her good bye when I went to work, or when I would come home after a hard day.

I also remember choosing the perfect new downstairs bed for her recuperation after yet another extended vet visit for her health problems later in her life. I had the bed in the car as I went in to pick her up from the veterinarian only to find she had collapsed in her cage right before I arrived. She held on just long enough for me to tell her good-bye and thank you.

So what lessons did I learn when Natasha died at age 14? Unfortunately, the great insights are often the great clichés: Life goes by fast, don't waste a moment, tell the ones you love, even the ones with fur, how you feel, show affection every chance you get --because I would give anything to kiss that doggy face just one more time and receive her lick in return.

My niece tries to comfort me. "I know you miss her," she quietly says to me. And I do. Still. Every day.

So here's the uplifting part: It's OKAY to feel this pain. This is the price you pay for having a great dog. You get the wonder, the joy, the tender moments, and you get the tears at the end, too.

We know what we are signing up for when we take an animal into our lives. We know at some point they will bring us heartache, you just need to find the one for you, the one some day you will inevitably suffer for. As many tears as Natasha can still elicit for me, I know that to not know this pain would have meant to have not known unconditional love. My dog, Natasha. She is definitely worth the tears.

Animals like Natasha deserve a second chance. They deserve a second, third and fourth chance. These are the animals that touch our lives. Touch our hearts. Move us to tears at our remembrance of the joy they brought into our lives. These are the animals that make our lives complete. They are sitting patiently waiting in shelters across America for you to realize this.

Executive Director, Petco Foundation