Pet Grief: What It's Like and How to Handle It.
It's never easy, but here is my advice when you lose a pet.
In the last ten years I have experienced the loss of six of my dogs. This is mostly because we rescue dogs that are always 5 or 6 years old…and Pants was 8 actually. Icon! I like taking a dog into our family that already knows who they are. Puppies have an absurd level of cuteness but they are also annoying. They wake you up, chew your stuff and you have to train them well or you are kind of effed!
I have some tough (but compassionate) words for pet owners and soon to be pet owners below on my best tips for surviving pet grief as someone who has gone through it a half a dozen times.
And it goes without saying, it has been so meaningful for me to rescue older dogs, even if it means less time with them.
You have to be there for them in the end: Let me start because it’s the thing I feel the strongest about. If your pet is being put down, you owe it to them to be there. They have shown you unconditional support and it’s your job on this earth to help shepherd them into the next life with love and guidance. I hear so often from people that they could never be with their pets and have left them in the room to go with the vet alone. I truly think that although it is so difficult, you should be there for your pet. Sorry for the tough love, but adored little animal babies leave this earth every day wondering where their owners are. I have had to put dogs down in the vet’s office. When it was time for my dog Pants to go, we brought her favorite bed, bought her a pizza and sat in the quiet room at the animal hospital. We donated her body to science, which was very on brand for Pants.
The benefit of doing it there is that you get to leave, but you are sobbing and blubbering in front of a lot of strangers. I preferred the experience I had at home with Muppet. Muppet was my first King Charles rescue. We met on the set of a morning show when I was doing PR for Cesar Milan’s magazine(I have lived many lives) and she was brought in as a recent puppy mill rescue by North Shore Animal League and I adopted her on site. She was the most loyal pup and I doubt I will ever have a dog that loves me as much as she did. And even though her body was decaying and she had such a poor quality of life, she did not want to leave me and it was awful. But I sat in that discomfort out of love and respect for the life she had given to me. We sat on the couch she had known for years and held her as she passed. The vet took her body away and we got her ashes back. I got to sob and blubber in the comfort of my own home.