Dear Mark;
First of all, may I say how lucky your girlfriend is to have such a caring boyfriend. What a nice person you must be.
I have lost more pets than I can count through the years and sadly, we also buried our newborn son.
The process is about the same, although obviously it was much harder to lose our son than our dogs.
In my opinion, it is better for the non-owner (in this case, you) to be the one who takes away the dog’s things. Box them up, tape the box shut and put the box away.
Now she will have the choice down the road of discarding or retaining the dog’s things but she doesn’t have to make that decision right now and they’re not staring her in the face.
I always preferred to do this a day after the dog’s death. To do it the day she dies is kind of cruel and to wait is to prolong the agony.
She will, of course, be devastated by this loss and will go through a period of mourning.
Again, this is my opinion, but to everything there is a season, so there is a time to grieve and a time to get yourself together and carry on and I think the time to get yourself together is about two weeks.
So give her two weeks to cry and be upset because this is very upsetting, but after that she should try to get herself going again.
Get her out of the house. Maybe a dinner-and-movie night or whatever, but don’t let her talk about the dog. She needs to get out of the funk (that’s why a movie is good, it’s a great distraction and there’s no talking, just be sure there’s no dog in the film!).
At some point she may start to feel guilty that she is enjoying life again while her poor pooch is gone but this is where you remind her that life is short and it’s for the living, and her dog wouldn’t like it if she knew your girlfriend was feeling that way.
As I always say, the problem with love between living beings, human or otherwise, is that very rarely do you both leave this world at the same time. One is always left to carry on.
In this case it is her so she needs to carry on and she is very fortunate that you want to help her.
Time will help her. Eventually the pain will abate and she will be able to remember the dog without crying (and probably smiling at what a great dog she was).
Good luck to you, this is very difficult but she will get through it.

Dear Mark;
Please accept my deepest sympathy for this loss.
I am sure that you did the right thing and that Josie knew how much she was loved.
I must say I am very impressed by your girlfriend’s gumption. She’s a ‘keeper’ if ever there was one.
Good luck to the both of you.
penguinsfan