I never liked the word pet to describe an animal adopted into one’s home. I guess if all the animal is there for is to guard the house or perhaps entertain the kids, perhaps then it’s a pet. But we don’t adopt pets. We adopt animals, dogs usually, to become part of our family. I don’t mean this lightly. One either truly understands the emotional value a dog brings, or they don’t. Words don’t do the feeling justice. Nothing I say will do it justice. We had to let our Sherlock go, this afternoon, after 16 years with him being truly a member of our family. He was old, 17 years old and wasting away from kidney disease, beginning to stagger in the last few days. He’d been on the decline…