Dogs

3931 readers

143 users here now

All about dogs - dog breeds, dog training and behavior, news affecting dog owners or handlers, puppy pics, etc.

Rules (Will be refined later on).

Don't be a dick. This should cover most things, just keep in mind that everyone started somewhere and try to be helpful rather than rude or judgmental.
No personal attacks based on training style or tools.
Discussion of balanced training including proper use of aversives is allowed here.
All breeds and mixes are welcome. You can criticize backyard breeding practices but don't pile on people because they own a specific breed or prefer purebreds or mixed breeds.
Do not support backyard breeders or puppy mills. Please do not link to or suggest buying from high volume breeders or those with an obvious lack of standards and testing.
Do not help or support fake service animals. Please do not encourage people to buy fake service dog vest or ESA letters to get around rental or other restrictions & do not give advice on how to misrepresent a dog as a service or support animal.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

Could use some advice. (lemmy.world)

submitted 18 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

6 comments fedilink hide all child comments

We had to put down our beloved baby girl of 10 years this morning after abruptly finding out about an abdominal tumor that burst open and caused internal bleeding past the point of saving.

Could really use some advice on the grieving process, all I can do is stare at her stuff and feel nothing but despair.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[–] RagnarokOnline 5 points 18 hours ago

(Advice at the bottom.)

I’m so sorry that you’ve lost your friend. When our baby girl (cat) passed away, we sobbed and sobbed. Losing a pet is sometimes harder than a family member because the pet is there EVERY MOMENT. Literally everything reminds you of them and how much you miss them.

But hang in there. The final form of “grief” is “appreciation” and having a friend that you feel that kind of appreciation towards is one of the deep joys of life.

We lost our girl in March and only just last week I saw a picture of her and shed a quiet tear thinking of her (this was after a couple of months of feeling really great and having “moved on”), but I was thankful that I could cry and knew that she still mattered to me. It’s hard, but also deeply beautiful to love so much.

Now for some advice: when we lost our girl, doing a “ritual” to honor her was really important for me. In the days after her passing, I stayed up late into the night going through every picture my SO and I had of her and found the ones I felt like captured our pet the most. Once I had those all together, I went online and made a picture book from Google Photos and ordered a printed copy to keep on the bookshelf.

The hours and hours of gathering photos really helped me to process the grief. Then, about a week after I ordered the book, it arrived in the post and I looked through it and cried some more.

Afterwards, I really felt like I had honored her memory and had cried about as much as I needed to.

Wishing you well on your journey, and thank you for making the hard choice to shorten her suffering as much as you could — that’s the burden that pet parents carry for our pets.

Blessings!