Re: OT - Goodbye to my little Emma (dog)...

Hi JJ and Hunter,

JJ, I'm so sorry. I looked at her pictures again and she is just the
cutest thing with a very happy expression.

Hunter, I don't think I've ever felt as bad as you do about losing a
pet; I might have come close (see below) but I think it would be
similar to losing a child. I don't think you have human kids, right?
And you surely bonded with and cared about Brady just as a mother
would. If I lost a child I expect I'd still be crying on a daily basis
for a couple years at least, and that I'd get very upset and achey if I
let myself think about it. I sometimes have dreams one of my kids has
died and I get a very upset, hopeless, lost, awful feeling - just for
the few minutes in the dream! I can't imagine how bad it would be if
it actually happened. Sometimes when I watch TV, like one of those CSI
shows, and a mother is shown being told her child has died, and the
mother just cries... I can't imagine that. I would WIG OUT.

I've been very lucky so far - I've only lost a couple of pets as an
adult. We had to put to sleep my two childhood dogs who were my
constant companions until I moved out... One was put down when I was
about 19 and the other when I was 26. That was hard but they weren't
living with me at the time and they were both ancient and truly in need
of that final act.

The worst thing so far for me as been the loss of my cat FooFoo. When
we first moved to the country my house wasn't livable yet and I lived
in my parents' house. They didn't want a bunch of cats and dogs in the
house so the dogs stayed in the backyard (or with me outside) during
the day and in the laundry room at night. But the cats lived outside.
For a year or so everything was fine... A couple of the feral cats we
were feeding got hit by cars, but never any of my cats.

Finally my house was finished enough that we could move in, but we were
going to Disneyland for a week so I left all the cats outside like they
had been living with the plan to bring FooFoo into the house when I got
home. Well, while I was gone, she disappeared. That was pretty awful.
It's been 5.5 years and I will still cry occasionally. The last
couple years the crying has been just very sad, but the first couple of
years it was much worse... I'd get really upset and replay scenes of
our life together in my head and I'd go over and over scenarios about
what could have happened to her and I'd just wish wish wish that I
wouldn't have gone to Disneyland... on and on and on.

She was not my constant companion like Brady was to you, but I did
interact with her at least every day, and before we moved here she was
a much beloved house cat. I was doing rescue at the time and helping
out a fellow rescuer whose house was already too full. Their mom got
hit by a car and they were all 4.5 weeks old. I was very lucky to have
gotten the litter into the San Francisco Humane Society's no-kill
shelter, but they wouldn't take this one kitten from the litter who
they deemed too sick to survive. So I brought her home and nursed her
to health, my daughter and I. Everybody loved her, and once we lived
out here, even big burly manly contractors working on my house would
tease me that they were going to come steal her since she was such a
nice cat.

Right now I'm really worried about my son... Buck, our golden, is
getting older, and so is Beauty, our greyhound. My son adores Beauty.
My son also LOVES a cat - she was a stray but has been here now for 3
years. She's very very old, according to the vet. He calls her his
girlfriend. And one of our horses, VeeVee, is pretty darn old. So one
of them (or more) is going to die at some point... My son hasn't seen
anything die yet and when we talk about it he gets so upset. I guess
it'll be good for him in a way; right now he insists that things can
come back to life if you really want them to. He'll be in for a big
shock but at least he'll finally have a better understanding.

Anyway. I'm sorry you are still hurting, Hunter. And JJ, I'm sorry
for your loss of both your dog and your bird. There are all sorts of
things we can say to try to make it better but the fact is, it sucks
and it hurts.

take care,
cindi

.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: What, no one is interested in watching the corn grow?
    ... We might get surrounded by water but if it gets to our door, never mind in the house, nobody for miles will have a home. ... I doubt I could abandon a cat either, though, and cats who have lived their entire lives indoors probably are no better adapted than a dog. ... I'd be more concerned for dogs than cats, as with cats you can leave food that will last, where many dogs will eat it all up on the spot. ...
    (sci.med.transcription)
  • Re: Every news group has a few really bad people in them.....
    ... and a brace of high-maintenance deranged Siamese cats. ... Did I mention one of the dogs is a Red Queensland bitch? ... let the dogs out to run the neighborhood. ... would go from house to house and see if they could get any handouts or a ...
    (rec.motorcycles)
  • Re: Pet Food Recall
    ... I never liked cats, simply because of their nature, as predators. ... In the house they can be sweet ... Cats can be as lovable to humans, as dogs, Olly. ... One day my daughter came home, found the frig freezer door open ...
    (soc.senior.issues)
  • Re: Very OT: A/C Out & Problems (long)
    ... without voiding the warranty, ... By then Mr. Bailey, one of our older cats, was very ill, and David was ... the migration to the motel was no easy ... I met the service tech at the house and he diagnosed the ...
    (rec.food.cooking)
  • Re: Very OT: A/C Out & Problems (long)
    ... without voiding the warranty, ... By then Mr. Bailey, one of our older cats, was very ill, and David was ... the migration to the motel was no easy ... I met the service tech at the house and he diagnosed the ...
    (rec.food.cooking)