I waited until Thanksgiving Day to post back and THANK YOU ALL for your kind and helpful words. All of you understand how much a dog is a part of your home and your heart. Every little routine in the house is different without him here and we are all feeling it. Walking into the house, loading the dishwasher, preparing a meal, going to bed, waking up -- all were filled with rituals and his presence and his absence is SO obvious and SO sad.
I think that if we wait to get a new dog, we may find every practical reason not to do it, but I also think that we all know we want another dog. In fact, we are now thinking that we will get TWO dogs! There is a breeder within about an hour of us who has 3 shelties left from a litter of 6. Two are female and one is a male. I've been emailing back and forth with her, and she's sent pics and descriptions of their personalities, and the male and one of the females seem very good for us. If we can work it out, we may drive there tomorrow to meet the breeder and the pups, who will be 10-weeks old tomorrow, and their parents. And, if all goes well, we will have a girl and boy baby sheltie making us CRAZY in the next few days! It won't take away from how much we loved Jaked, but it will help us move forward and honor him by giving love to more sheltie doggies. That's what he taught us how to do!