Pets are the picture of devotion and availability and are our best source of unconditional love, becoming sometimes the ideal child, parent, mate or friend, for us. They just accept us exactly as we are, no matter how we look, feel or behave. We share with them happiness, sadness and our deepest secrets with them. They want us to play with them and even greet us joyfully when we come home to them and may even sleep with us in our beds at night. Thus, the sudden loss of a pet, shatters the entire family.
Pain During Pet Loss
Often, during pet loss grief, many people wonder whether it is something wrong to have such intense feelings of sadness and pain. Most of them are even taken by surprise to see that they feel worse after a pet loss, than if they had lost a friend or relative. The way people get attached to their pets may differ from individual to individual. Sometimes our love for pets even goes beyond their death, causing us to grieve and feel an enormous pain in our hearts.
Based on the strength of our attachments to a family member, we may react differently when a sudden death occurs, even if it is the loss of a pet.
Seek Support For Pet Loss
When pet loss occurs, the most important step you can take is to be honest about your feelings as only then can you work through them. Don't deny your pain, or your feelings of anger and guilt. Pet loss grief makes people experience both physical and emotional traumas as they try to adapt to the disarray in their lives brought about by the loss. Some find it helpful to express their feelings and memories by writing and reading pet loss poems, stories, or letters to the pet. Other strategies including seeking support for pet loss by talking to other members of your family and friends who understood the eternal bond you shared with your pet. If you don't have family or friends who understand, its advisable to seek pet loss counseling recommended by your veterinarian or humane association. You have suffered the loss of a pet and your grief is genuine and deserves support.
Once you undergo the pain of pet loss, you can understand the grief someone else may go through on the loss of a pet. Join a support group, share your pain and send other pet owners, pet loss sympathy cards and poems. Once you share your pain, it becomes easier to deal with the insurmountable grief you are facing.
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