Interesting article
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Since 2012, Dana Topousis has lost four dogs — all young Dobermans — to illness. Galen died of heart disease; the others, Homer, Romeo and Ruthie, succumbed to different cancers.
So, she knows grief, which she calls “a lonely thing.”
“I live by myself, and my animals are my family, so it takes me a long time to recover,” said Topousis, of Davis, Calif., head of marketing and communications for the University of California at Davis. “Also, because my dogs were young, there’s unexpressed love — you think about all the things you won’t get to do with your dog.”
Pet parents often say that losing their animal companions can sometimes be as hard as, if not harder than, losing a human family member, experts said.
“Your pets follow you into bathroom. They sleep with you. They are your shadow. Human family members don’t do that,” said Leigh Ann Gerk, a pet loss grief counselor in Loveland, Colo., and founder of Mourning to Light Pet Loss.
“Humans don’t go crazy with joy when you come back inside after getting the mail. Human relationships, while important, can be difficult. Our relationship with our pets is simple. They love us just as we are.”
People want to help, but often don’t know how. Sometimes their comments can hurt. “Greater society doesn’t recognize the intensity of this loss and the grieving that comes with it,” said Jessica Kwerel, a D.C. psychotherapist who specializes in pet loss………
https://www.washingtonpost.com/wellness/2023/01/31/grief-pets-loss/