What I notice the most is the sound, or rather the absence of sounds: I miss the click of Cooper's nails on the wooden floor, the jingling of his tags (so exasperating at times that we considered buying those rubber jingle-stoppers), and, because he was an itchy dog, the drum-major's thump-thump-thump as he worked his back leg up and down to scratch behind his ear. I know I will experience phantom dog noises for a while.

Cooper died unexpectedly last weekend, when we were away from home, ...