If you consider your dog your companion and best friend like most people do it can be a pretty devastating loss when your dog dies. I have loved a many of dogs in my lifetime. Some of my fondest memories as a kid growing up on a farm in a small community involves my dogs. I got my first dog when I was 5 years old. He was not only a great dog, he was my best friend. We had many adventures together running through the corn fields and playing chase. His name was Ruff. He saved me from getting snake bit once. I was crawling under a fence and he rushed passed me and grabbed the snake and killed it before I even knew it was there. He was my ultimate protector when I was outside. My mother couldn’t even whip me in the yard as he would not allow it. She got around that pretty easy and would take me in the house to wear my rear end out when I did something wrong. He really should have been a house dog too!
One Saturday evening we walked to the end of the road to check the mail as we did just about every day. He followed me to the other side of the road where the mailbox was located. We didn’t have a lot of traffic on the road back then as we lived in a rural area. A couple of cars an hour passed by our driveway but on that day he was struck by a truck and died instantly. As an 8 year old boy my world as I knew it was gone. That was my first experience with the loss of a dog. It was hard and it took a long time to get over. I had to learn over the years to deal with the loss of a dog many more times. Here are a few ways I personally dealt with the loss of my dogs and they may help you when that times comes or if that time is now.
I gave my dog the best possible life
I can always feel good when looking back on my dogs life and knowing the fact I gave it the best life possible. Knowing it had a happy life with me and was loved. I can always find peace in knowing I did everything to keep my dog healthy and happy.
Morn the loss it’s ok to cry
Crying about it and letting out all those emotions is completely natural and helps the healing process. If you don’t cry over your dog at some point you might not be human.
Look back on your dog through pictures
Everyone has pictures of their dog and today it’s more convenient than ever with smart phones so you should have plenty of them. Remembering those good times and seeing how happy your dog was while spending time with you and your family is a great way to help get over the loss of your dog. It may be painful to start with but in time you will accept the fact you had a happy dog and he knew you loved him.
Talk to others about your dog
One thing that always makes me feel better is to talk to someone and tell them what you are going through. Someone who has a pet of their own could be a great listener. It will always make you feel better venting to a friend or loved one.
Your dog is no longer suffering
A lot of pet owners face health issues with their dog like cancer and sometimes there is nothing much that can be done for them to make them better. A dog does not fear death but they do fear pain. Sometimes we have to make a hard decision to let our dog go and end the suffering. If you had to make that difficult decision just remember the dog is free from the pain now. It would be selfish to allow your dog to continue to suffer just because you couldn’t let it go.
Get a new dog
It may take some time to get over the loss of your dog and you may never really get over it but remember life goes on. At some point it’s time to get a new dog and start new adventures and memories all over again. It’s the circle of life. Building a relationship with a new dog will be good for you and some lucky dog will get a great home and know how it feels to be loved.
Dogs are the only animals on earth that will love you more than it loves its self. They love you unconditionally, their devoted to you, and their world revolves around you.
