I've had dogs all my life. Some have been pets and some have been my "partner". I always kept the dogs after they were retired and miss them all.
I'm raising beagles now and they are great. I have a couple that will dissapear with my drivers for the day just to go for a ride. I've trained one of the young ones to sniff out pot and she scares the hell out of a few customers at some stops.
Most people don't realize how easy it is to teach a dog to sniff for drugs.
Hope the new pup is helping to ease the pain.
It takes a long time to get over that kind of loss.