Hello friends,
Although the loss of a pet can be trivialised by those around the bereaved individual, it is in fact an agonising and challenging loss to come to terms with.
I've always wanted a dog in my life. And then one day I got to know Titan, a stunning five-year-old Labrador. Abundant happiness and unwavering affection.
Suddenly one morning, the choice to end his life had to be made. Trapped with my emotions in a small veterinarian's office, I felt a grief I was not expecting. Not at all.
Losing a loved one is not always easier or simpler than grieving for an animal. One distinction between grieving for an animal and grieving for a human being is that, in most cases, we get to pick when the animal dies.
And this component has the potential to become extremely guilt-inducing," says psychologist Annique Lavergne, whose research has focused on animal grieving.
I even asked my dog to tell me when he had had enough in an esoteric moment that disturbed the logical journalist in me.
And he did, comfortably leaning on me. I brought him to the car that morning. The warm body of a friend who is sick of life is in my arms.
It would be ineffective to attempt to convey the amount of suffering I endured during those weeks as I carefully stored each of his toys, bowls, and cushion.
You are either an animal lover who finds it absurd to grieve for a dog "who was almost old, anyway" or you have never gone through this kind of sadness and understand it.
You must allow yourself the necessary time to go through the phases of mourning. This can involve keeping an animal's bowl and cushion in their current location until you're ready to take them out.
It can also entail planning a unique ceremony to commemorate your happy memories of them.
We find that, as Johanne frequently did, we desire to welcome an animal back into our home when the period of grieving has passed.
"Usually, I would get a new puppy right away following the death of the old one, just to keep my mind off things.
However, I decided against getting any more dogs after my Shetland, Mindy, passed away at the age of sixteen following a long and lovely life.
This continued for a full year. Then, the need got the better of me.
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