The reality is that the lion's share of our animal companions live about one-seventh or less as long as we do. So, it happens all the time: They pass over to that great unknown long before we do.
Pet mediums and plain-vanilla psychics tell us that animals, unlike we humans, don't have to keep coming back here to planet earth ground-hog's day-style to get it right. They do that the first time. So they are there wherever enjoying their spirit self, waiting for us to join them.
Nice thought. But never comforting for long. Our pets are so dominant in our emotional life because they don't judge, they don't hold resentments, and they don't plot to get even.
When they leave us, there's a hole where the feeling of safety had been. Nothing fills that hole, not completely. I ask all of us whose lives were enhanced by our pets to keep in mind a reader of this blog. Her name is Jackie. She's from my hometown of Jersey City, New Jersey. Yesterday she lost her dog Brandy. He was fine. Then he wasn't. And that was that.
Five years ago I lost my dog Molly Mittens. The hurt hasn't abated. I haven't adopted another dog. The pain is still too palpable.
On his blog http://ethicsguerrilla.typepad.com, Mark Matousek observes:
"Social mores have gone through a revolution in our relationship with animals. Our values now allow for the human-animal bond to be nearly as treasured, and protected, as the human-human one."
You can read the rest of what Matousek says about pet grief here. Recently, he published a new book "Ethical Wisdom" which describes how discoveries in science are transforming how society thinks about, creates, and gains buy-in for values. "Ethical Wisdom" is in bookstores or you can order it online. [I now represent Mark Matousek as a client of Genova Writing, Coaching, and More.]
Pets will always be loyal to us...no matter what.
Posted by: Philadelphia House | December 28, 2011 at 09:39 AM