Turtles, dogs, cats, rodents and even birds. Today we have all kinds of animals as life companions, but dogs and cats continue to be the pets that best fit into families, to the point that when the time comes to say goodbye and put them to sleep at the vet, 90% of people are not able to be in the same room as them.
Living without a pet is a very painful and difficult situation for owners to bear, since these animals end up being another member of the family. That is why when we lose it, we process the duel in a similar way to when any other family member is missing, with the only difference: "You cannot find the same support from the environment that surrounds you, forcing us to hide our feelings since there are still those who He does not understand that the loss of an animal feels so much, ”explains the therapist in accompaniment of grief and loss, Adela Martínez Gómez, in a press release.
During the mourning that goes through the loss of a pet, you feel a huge emptiness, just like that of any other loved one, since you will have spent most of your day-to-day hours with them. “In the case of people whose children have already left home, those pets are the ones who make you feel like a useful person, because that family member still depends on you,” says Martínez.
Thus, when we say goodbye to them, pain leads us to process grief in the same phases as with any other person in the family:
As in any other type of mourning, the way to evolve and transcend the pain that loss causes us is personal and non-transferable, although some advice from the therapist that can help after the loss of our companions are:
However, and due to the importance it has in this type of mourning, the fundamental thing is that "the owner of the pet acts according to his wishes and makes his own decisions, without accepting what others may think, since if he is characterized by something this loss is due to a lack of social understanding.”
