by Ann Atwood

Created on: February 12, 2009

DEATH OF A PET

I know many people who have pets that have died say "Well it was only a dog." Those people can't fathom how anyone could be so upset over a pet's death. They don't understand how strong the bond is between humans and animals. It's hard for me to comprehend this mind set. They only think that once a pet dies they can forget about that loss. We don't "own" a pet, in fact pets own their humans. They need to be cared for, loved and appreciated for all the wonderful gifts they give to us. Whether it's a dog, cat, gerbil or any other animal that brings joy to us.

When I was a child my parents had four dogs and one cat during my years living at home. The first dog was a wire hair terrier whose name was Tippy, followed by Skipper, then Teddy and Beaver. I remember their deaths and although I grieved after each one died, it was a childish grief that didn't last very long. That's not to say I forgot about them. It wasn't until I had my own dogs die is when I learned about the special place animals have in our lives. I don't remember truly grieving until I became an adult and had animals of my own did I realized the enormity of a pet's death.

We rescued two of our dogs, and the other two came to us from a local breeder. The first rescue was a little Pomeranian named Conan. His owner would let him wander on a very busy road. Fearful that he might get killed I brought him to work and because he had tags on him I was able to contact the owner. However, she didn't appear too distraught about losing him, and didn't want to take him home. So I took him to a real home, ours.

Unfortunately, Conan wasn't with us very long. Unbeknownst to us he had a tumor in his intestines and sadly he didn't survive the surgery. This was, I'm certain, the reason his owner didn't want him back. But he spent his last days being taken care of and loved. The vet had his ashes returned to us so we would always have a part of him with us.

We decided after a while that we really wanted another dog and found out about rescuing one. We traveled from Northwest CT to Salem, NH to take a look at some dogs who were in a terrible situation. To our amazement, the owner of 12 Pomeranians were kept in small pens. There six males and six females. All they were doing was running around after each other in a circle. We learned that the little fellow we had chosen to adopt was once a show dog, but he wasn't winning any competitons at dog shows any more. He never had climbed stairs, felt the grass under

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