Losing a Pet is Like Losing a Member of the Family [1-1-18]

Losing a Pet is Like Losing a Member of the Family

When put in the situation of losing a beloved pet, many people might wonder whether it is something wrong to have such intense feelings of grief and pain. Most of them are even taken by surprise to see that they feel worse than if they had lost a friend or relative.

The explanation is simple, as most pet owners in the United States regard their pets as members of the family. Furthermore, more people have pets than children, so it should all be clear by now.

Depending on the part a family member has played in our daily lives, the significance of our relationships with him or her and also on the strength of our attachments to that person, we may react differently when a sudden death occurs. This is the same for people and animals.

Pets are the picture of devotion and availability and are our best source of unconditional love, becoming for many of us the ideal child, parent, mate or friend. No matter how much change we must endure in our lives, our pets are always there for us. They can listen without judgment or reproach. The bad thing about it is that they never give advice. They just accept us exactly as we are, no matter of how we look or feel or behave. They forgive us at once and never hold anything against us. Nowadays even the word pet, which implies ownership of one creature by another, is used less often in the professional literature than the term companion animal, which implies mutual friendship.

Pets are a constant presence in our daily life. We share with them happiness and sadness all the same. They are there when we drink our coffee in the morning, and need our help to toilet, feed, water, exercise and groom. 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. There is nothing we cannot do with our pets. We can touch them, stroke them, pet them, hug them, even kiss them, and tell them our troubles. People often share their deepest secrets with them.

So, the way people get attached to their pets may differ from individual to individual, but the result is still the same. We just love them and there is nothing that can be done to change that. Sometimes our love for pets even goes beyond their death, causing us to grief and feel an enormous pain in our hearts.