This is a post about grieving the loss of a pet. If you need something more lighthearted, something to make you smile or even laugh outright, that is understandable and completely valid at any time, and certainly in these trying times. I commend to you this set of sweet and funny Dog Memes.

No Small Gift

I have a friend who lost her horse last year. I have another friend who lost her dog, and another who lost her cat recently, and another whose pet was recently diagnosed with cancer.

And I’ve said goodbye to a pet who was so loved it felt as though the world went dark for a while, after he was gone.

As with the loss of a human, it doesn’t stop hurting.

And as with the loss of a human, for those of us outside the circle of grief there are long lists of what we shouldn’t do and say, but no list of “Things to say that will magically make it all better.”

Oh, there’s advice out there, like this PsychCentral article How to Cope When You’re Grieving the Loss of a Pet. ***

It’s a good article, with helpful suggestions.

But mostly it just hurts.

So to those of you who are missing your “better than human” friend, I wish you beautiful memories, and peace.

(Thanks to Iris Graville for the better than human moniker.)

“Dogs die so soon. . . . It is almost a failure of will, a failure of love, to let them grow old — or so it feels. We would do anything to keep them with us, and to keep them young. The one gift we cannot give. Because of the dog’s joyfulness, our own is increased. It is no small gift.

It is not the least reason why we should honor as well as love the dog of our own life, and the dog down the street, and all the dogs not yet born. What would the world be like without music or rivers or the green and tender grass? What would this world be like without dogs?”

Mary Oliver

As a kind of postscript, here are a few of my favorite Charlie photos and stories . . .

Feel free to share your own favorite stories in the comments. Or not. Sometimes it helps, sometimes it hurts. These pages belong to a community of people who understand.

*** How to Cope When You’re Grieving the Loss of a Pet, by Rena Goldman, medically reviewed by Karin Gepp, PsyD, PsychCentral (10/13/2021) available at https://psychcentral.com/lib/grieving-the-loss-of-a-pet