Coping With Pet Loss

Pet loss can have a profound impact on your life because the bond between a person and their pet is irreversible and irreplaceable. If you are currently dealing with pet loss, then you may be experiencing guilt, anxiety, sadness, and understandably, pain. The grief can often last for months or years depending on how close you were to your pet, but you can experience healing when you accept that your pet will never really leave you because they will never be forgotten. The memory of your pet will always live on in your heart.

You may not be able to touch or feel your pet any longer, but the memory of them will be enough to get you through the weakest moments of grief. During the grieving process, you may be shocked at first and unable to believe that your pet is truly gone. If your pet has passed away, this feeling may last for a shorter period of time than if your pet has wandered out of your yard or was lost during a storm.

After you experience the shock, you may start to feel anxious and lonely without your pet. When the loneliest sets in, so do the feelings of guilt and doubt, and you may begin taunting yourself with questions about what you could have done differently to bring your pet back. Letting go of the grief and guilt is one of the hardest parts of losing a pet because you want so much to get them back, and death is permanent and final. It is very hard to accept that you cannot get your pet back that you loved so much, but once you can start to remember the best things about your pet, you will be able to cope with the pet loss much better. The pain will never totally leave because you loved your pet, and this love makes it hard for you to be separated even if you know it was their time or you know there was nothing more that you could have done.

Loving your pet and feeling pain over their absence is not weakness; it shows that you are human and that you formed a strong attachment to your friend and companion. The most important thing that any pet lover needs to realize about pet loss is that your feelings of grief and loss are completely normal and necessary for your healing. As the healing process begins after your pet loss, you can memorialize your pet and make sure that you always remember the little things that made them special to you.

By: Renee Wood, MSW

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Renee Wood founded The Comfort Company in 2000. She is a social worker that has helped families deal with the loss or pending loss of a child, as well as aiding patients in the end-stage of renal failure. The gifts provided by The Comfort Company offer Pet sympathy gifts as well as hope for healing hearts.