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[Linda]

Hello everyone. I just wanted to introduce myself. My name is Linda and I just lost my sweet little mini-dachshund named "Baby" after 14yrs together. I've been so depressed for the last few days. My friends and even some family members make me feel as if I'm crazy for crying over my dog, so I just hold it in all day long until I go to bed at night and cry myself to sleep. I lost her less than one week now.
So, I'm really not crazy! There are other people out there like me who love their pets (babies) as much as I do.
You all have really brightened my day!! I'm so glad I stumbled across this site.

A very big thank you,

Linda

[Gort]

Hi Linda and welcome.

I'm so sorry about Baby. You're not alone in your suffering and you aren't crazy.

People can be insensitive and ignorant... I was one of those people once. A friend at work lost her long time dog and was terribly saddened by it. I didn't know what grief could be. At the time, my dog Ava was only about 10 and still healthy and fit. I remember thinking (never said out loud) at the time "it's only a dog, get over it". I had no concept of the pain and suffering we go through when our beloved animal companions go over the Rainbow Bridge. I had never said anything to my friend other than "I'm sorry about your dog, now can you find this file, it doesn't seem to be where it should be."

Ava left on her own time table and I didn't have to decide so I didn't have any guilt in that regard, but my thoughts of when my friend at work when she lost her dog came back to me in a big way... I had to phone her and apologize for even thinking what I had thought. We had a good conversation for about an hour, I felt so much better afterwards.

As far as the intenisty, my own life's experiences has been that I've lost both my parents, mom in '81 and my dad in '98. My brother was killed in a motorcycle accident in '84. If I combined the grief I can recall* for all of them, it doesn't even begin to compare. It's been 11 weeks and altho I don't cry every day anymore, I know I have shed more tears over my dog than the rest of my family.

*with the passage of time, we will not forget the pain, but it will be severly diminished. It's sort of like 'maternal amnesia' where birthing pains are forgotten. Imagine where the human race (or any other animal for that matter) would be if women remembered the excrutiating pain of child birth.

Seems to me, we cause pain to someone being brought into the world, we cause pain to other people when we leave. Our buddies only hurt us when they leave.