Did you get a chance to check out the video on yesterday’s Blog post about replacing a pet that dies?

What are your thoughts about it?

When a beloved pet dies, you can be catapulted into distress. Tears will flow at various times for many reasons…at the thought of your pet’s past antics, or when you find a lost toy, or when you look at pictures of your pet, or when you remove the food and water bowls, or …

All you want is to see your pet; in fact if it used to greet you at the door upon your return, you anticipate seeing it when you come home.

The house just seems so empty.

You may hear noises of your deceased pet.

And if you dearly loved your pet as more than a companion…as a member of the family and called it “my boy” or “my girl” (because it was a family substitute—as my sister Cindy did with her dog Heidi; it was like a child to her)…where you have a specific attachment to the animal…and someone minimizes your grief by implying, “Well it was only an animal,” your grief can be prolonged while anger festers within you.

The death of a pet is not the death of just any animal! A pet can be a person’s best friend—especially for a child. And when the pet dies, children must mourn for that part of themselves that died too.

So it’s important to respect a pet owner’s feelings and beliefs about a pet’s death—not everybody has the same attachment…but some are quite close.

Listen to them talk about their pet, their feelings, their thoughts…

When a person is socialized to animals and their deceased companion was a part of their well being, the person will want to replace the deceased pet sooner or later.

Yes, it’s Ok to get another pet.

But is there a “good” time to do it—how long do you wait?

I’ll talk about that in my next Blog post.

Melanie Hack
Author of Who Killed My Sister, My friend
Read an excerpt now
TV Shows and Clips about the Death of Cindy James