Anyone ever have to leave a pet behind?

[Moore]

I might be getting a job clear across the country, so that pretty much means I can't take my dog with me. I've had him for almost 6 or so years now so he's pretty much my best friend. I'm gonna have to leave him here with the other dogs at my parents place where I know he'll be happy, but it's so depressing to me because I remember coming home after school and he'd be sitting there waiting for me on the porch. He even knew the sound of my car and would be sitting by the driveway waiting for me to get out ._. I can't help but picture that episode of Futurama with Fry's dog Seymour and it makes me infinitely sadder about the whole thing.

[Nili]

When I moved over here to the UK from the US, I had to leave my Akita behind. I raised him since he was a puppy, and even though my parents technically bought him..he was 100% mine. I walked him, fed him, he slept with me, curled on my lap. He and I had the best friendship ever. Then, I found the man of my dreams and moved out here to be with him. I had to leave him with my parents as well.. and well.. I hope your story turns out better than mine.

Because he was only 5 months when I left, he didn't have proper training and didn't recieve any out of pure laziness of my parents. He attacked my mother and nearly ripped out her eyeball. They had to put him down. In my opinion, he was innocent. :S His name was Samurai and he was my best friend.

Is there any reason why you can't bring him with you? A few tranqs and they do fine on the road.

[Moore]

There's no way to take him even though hes a small dog, he's extremely over protective of me and I'll probably be living in just a hotel room or with someone who already has three dogs for awhile. I don't think it's fair to him to leave him in a cage or something when he could be at home on a farm with other dogs :\

[Nili]

I'm sure he'll miss you, but yeah a farm will keep him plenty occupied ^-^
Just be sure to visit him every now and then, he'll love that <3

[Finduilas]

I moved to Sweden only two weeks ago. At home in Germany I have a cat at my parent's house and two with my fiance in our own apartment. It was hard at first when I moved out from my parents, I missed our cat really much. Because of that I got the two with my fiance. Now I'm away for one year and they stay in Germany. I'm used to have cats around since I was a baby (my grandma's cat used to sleep at my side in the cradle) and I really miss somthing to cuddle with. Without fiance AND cats, that's a hard time for me, but restrictions to take cats to Sweden are really tough and I didn't want them to have too much stress for "just one year". I'm also not allowed to keep pets in my student's room, and it's not that big either. So no place for a cat here. But at least I know that I can visit them on Christmas and I'll have them back when the year is over.
It's hard to leave pets behind, especially if you are used to have them around as long as you can think of. But as Nili said, try to visit your dog and he'll be happy for sure. They don't forget if someone was nice to them and loved them.