PETS #73: LOSING A FRIEND

I went on four pet web sites concerning the death of a pet. The first one is probably the most well known site. It is the "Rainbow bridge pet loss grief center." It gave some very helpful information about how to deal with children and the loss of a pet. It said you should talk about the death to get it out in the open, you should give the child hugs and reassurance during this process, and you can encourage the child to share his loss with someone important in his life like a teacher. The second one I went to was the "Grief and loss by Margaret Muns, DVM." It said that dealing with the loss of a pet was sometimes harder than dealing with the loss of a person. This is because you have lost a non-judgmental love source, and this is very hard. Also, you no longer have anything to nurture. This is especially hard for older persons. The third source that I went was "VetMed.Forum. This site lets you ask general questions about your loss. The fourth source that I went to was "Peteducation.com." This source gave the steps in grieving the loss of a pet. They are: shock & denial, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance. These are much the same as for the loss of a person. It also said that the death of a pet was very hard because people didn't understand. They can say "It was just an animal-you can always get another one." Also, the support group for animal death is smaller than the support group for persons. They were all very interesting and helpful.