When her family lost Elvis, their beloved black Labrador, in 2004, Dr. Wendy Hauser’s two young children repeatedly pleaded with her to help them make sense of their pet’s death.
“Why?” her daughter, Elizabeth, who was 7 years old at the time, and her son, Andrew, 9, kept asking.
“Two hours later, they’re still doing this,” she recalled. “I finally just had to say … ‘Mommy’s heart is broken, too, and she needs a little bit of time to herself to remember Elvis.’”
When it’s time to say goodbye to a family pet, it’s not easy even for a family with an expert such as Hauser, who is the founder of Peak Veterinary Consulting in Parker, Colorado, and a special advisor to ASPCA Pet Health Insurance.
She has helped numerous families euthanize dogs, cats, guinea pigs and other animals when the time came.
Monday, Aug. 28, is Rainbow Bridge Remembrance Day, a day to share memories of beloved pets that have “crossed the Rainbow Bridge,” according to the American Kennel Club. It was started in 2015 by author Deborah Barnes, who wrote the book “Purr Prints of the Heart – A Cat’s Tale of Life, Death, and Beyond,” in tribute to her cat Mr. Jazz.
The death of a pet can be extremely difficult mentally and emotionally, but there are things pet owners can do to make sure their pets are comfortable and to help families grieve.
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What is anticipatory grief and how do you deal with it?
Anticipatory grief arises when it hits you that your pet is aging, or you find out your pet has a chronic illness. “You begin to imagine what life would be like without your pet,” Hauser shared. “Especially if you know that the time is coming near.”
Another family pet, Chester, a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, helped Hauser learn how to handle that. Diagnosed with a heart condition at 7 years old, Chester was given six to 18 months to live. It was a huge blow for Hauser, who thought he’d live…
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