Some years ago my friend had asked me to drive her to pick up a rescue dog from the other side of the country as a companion for the elderly dog that she'd already got.
On the morning of the day that we were due to travel though she had to have the old dog (who'd been suffering poor health for a while) put down. We were committed to picking up the new dog, so we went ahead with our planned journey, meaning that she was back home with her new friend that same evening.
She later said that it couldn't have worked out better, as she'd only been without a dog for a few hours, so I know that her advice (if she was still with us) would have been "Don't wait. Act".