If you’ve ever lost a soul pet or soul dog, how did you manage to get through this unbearable pain? Anything helps.
Women of Reddit, how did you cope with losing your soul pet/dog?
r/AskWomen
If you’ve ever lost a soul pet or soul dog, how did you manage to get through this unbearable pain? Anything helps.
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When she died, I let myself feel all the feelings & didn’t hold anything back. I let myself cry it out. I put together a little video of all my pictures & videos of her. I sent it to my family, so we could all have something to remember her by & be able to watch it when we miss her.
Still hurts though. It’s been almost a year. Hang in there <3
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I shared a link to the local shelter so people could donate in their honor. It made me feel better that other animals would benefit.
I donated their toys and lesser-used things. I gave away an open bag of food on my local Buy Nothing group, to a woman who fed strays in her neighborhood.
You have my sympathies. This is so hard.
I’m not. I lost my boy unexpectedly on Monday. He was only 11. I’m absolutely heartbroken and feel like I can’t breathe some days. I’m honestly just going through the motions right now.
Time I guess, but I still feel sad about it regularly.
I remember the life I gave her, all the great things we did together and know she had an amazing life. Its been a few years and it still hurts sometimes, but we had 16 years of adventures together, I will forever cherish.
I lost mine 13 years ago and it still hurts enough that I don’t speak about him out loud. In my head, I can go on and on in an imagined conversation with someone who perhaps asked about him, but in real life if someone asks “did you have a dog?” I surprisingly clam up. He was my heart, I’ll never have a connection with another dog like I did with him.
But I got through the initial feelings by going through the thousands of pictures I’d taken over his life and I picked many of my favorites and put them up everywhere. I absolutely went overboard. My family was hurting too so they didn’t object. But when I was ready, I started taking pictures down one by one until it was at a reasonable amount.
Its still hard. I don’t really know.
It will be 1 year without him on fathers day.
Time. I also saved her ashes and its going to be planted with a willow tree
No way through it except through it. Time will help the sharpest pain scar over a bit and you’ll find it easier to think of the wonderful memories without letting your grief overcome you. My soulmate puppy went over the rainbow bridge about ten years ago and now her memory brings me way more smiles than tears. I feel Lucky to have had her in my life and privileged to have given her a wonderful life. She was absolutely adored and always will be.
I lost my soul cat in March 2022.
That loss came after several years of one loss after another. I was swallowed up by grief. And a lot of times for me my grief presents as anger.
I pursued therapy using DBT to help me process and cope with all of the grief I was dealing with.
I still grieve him, I still tear up whenever I talk about him or look at his urn. But the therapy allowed me to exist with my grief without the anger instead of being consumed by my grief/anger.
I got a tattoo of her paw prints with her ashes in the ink.
I lost my koda bear at 14 in October last year. You don’t, it might just sting a little less over time. You’ll miss them, their faces, their fur, their touch, but remember them for all the love they gave you, know you have them a great life and that love is with you always, remember they would want you to be happy. I’m so sorry for your loss
My cat I have now is my entire heart, when his stops so will mine.
Trying to figure out as well. Sending you hugs. It’s the absolute worst.
There is a group online/website that deals with individuals who have lost their beloved pet. They have live chat groups that helped me initially. It’s hard. I’m two years past the day I lost my soul kitty. It took time. Losing my baby was just as difficult as losing a person. One day at a time.
Oof, it was an extremely difficult time. It was sudden and unexpected. He was old but (as far as I knew) pretty healthy. Until one day, he had a sudden stroke out of nowhere and lost the ability to walk. Once we went to the vet, we found out he was blind in one eye, and it became a quality of life discussion. I felt my heart break, it was unbearable. I sat with him and cried for about an hour. The next few days were torture, and I genuinely did not believe a human could produce so many tears. I was a shell. The best way for me to heal is to share my love so a couple of months later, I went to an adoption event. I did find another dog to love, but I will never love another dog like I did Tyson. It was complete, unconditional, parent/child love, and I don’t care what anyone says about that. That was my baby. I will miss him every single day for the rest of my life. Coping by sharing and rescuing other dogs 🖤
Really only time helped me.
And there’s this thing I read a few years after I lost her, about how dogs never die, they just fall asleep in your heart, and now I remember it whenever I start to miss her again, and it makes me feel better.
Dogs Never Die
Dogs never die. They don’t know how to. They get tired, and very old, and their bones hurt. Of course they don’t die. If they did they would not want to always go for a walk, even long after their old bones say: ‘No, no, not a good idea. Let’s not go for a walk.’ Nope, dogs always want to go for a walk. They might get one step before their aging tendons collapse them into a heap on the floor, but that’s what dogs are. They walk.
It’s not that they dislike your company. On the contrary, a walk with you is all there is. Their boss, and the cacaphonic symphony of odor that the world is. Cat poop, another dog’s mark, a rotting chicken bone (exultation), and you. That’s what makes their world perfect, and in a perfect world death has no place.
However, dogs get very very sleepy. That’s the thing, you see. They don’t teach you that at the fancy university where they explain about quarks, gluons, and Keynesian economics. They know so much they forget that dogs never die. It’s a shame, really. Dogs have so much to offer and people just talk a lot.
When you think your dog has died, it has just fallen asleep in your heart. And by the way, it is wagging its tail madly, you see, and that’s why your chest hurts so much and you cry all the time. Who would not cry with a happy dog wagging its tail in their chest. Ouch! Wap wap wap wap wap, that hurts. But they only wag when they wake up. That’s when they say: ‘Thanks Boss! Thanks for a warm place to sleep and always next to your heart, the best place.’
When they first fall asleep, they wake up all the time, and that’s why, of course, you cry all the time. Wap, wap, wap. After a while they sleep more. (remember, a dog while is not a human while. You take your dog for walk, it’s a day full of adventure in an hour. Then you come home and it’s a week, well one of your days, but a week, really, before the dog gets another walk. No WONDER they love walks.)
Anyway, like I was saying, they fall asleep in your heart, and when they wake up, they wag their tail. After a few dog years, they sleep for longer naps, and you would too. They were a GOOD DOG all their life, and you both know it. It gets tiring being a good dog all the time, particularly when you get old and your bones hurt and you fall on your face and don’t want to go outside to pee when it is raining but do anyway, because you are a good dog. So understand, after they have been sleeping in your heart, they will sleep longer and longer.
But don’t get fooled. They are not ‘dead.’ There’s no such thing, really. They are sleeping in your heart, and they will wake up, usually when you’re not expecting it. It’s just who they are.
I feel sorry for people who don’t have dogs sleeping in their heart. You’ve missed so much.
I accepted it pretty readily knowing that he wasn’t doing well any more and it was his time to go but I still feel sad when I think about him
Time. Honestly nothing helped except time passing and me learning to accept that she’s in a better place but still still always be a part of my soul and in that, we’ll never be apart. After she died, I fell sick for 1-2 months and it was such a mysterious illness because doctors couldn’t tell me what was wrong but I couldn’t eat, no energy, would throw up blood but ZERO indications. It’s the worst thing that’s ever happened to me. And that day still gives me nightmares.
I cried for months. I donated her stuff to a rescue. Then I decided that I needed to pour my love into another dog and rescued a puppy. Then I lost my mind apparently and rescued another puppy 10 months after that. They filled the gap that my pug left behind and helped me move forward. I will always miss her though.
I made a photo memory book of him and kept it out, easily accessible. It helped to have that to look through when I was missing him. We also talked about him a lot, sharing stories and memories. He was very loved, and it helped to talk about him, to know he wasn’t forgotten, even though he was gone
I lost my soul cat last year in September and I still miss him so much. Then we lost another one of our cats in Feburary and I have been really struggling since then. We had them cremated and have their little urns on a dresser with some LED candles and fairy lights. I also recently got a tattoo of one of their paw prints framed by catnip (the plant)
Mine passed on may 15th 2024 so its been a year, she was with me almost 15 years and more than half of my life, losing her has been the worst pain I’ve felt in my life, I still cry pretty much every night as i talk to her little urn, i miss her everyday, but i feel some comfort in knowing i made the right decision, i believe she said goodbye the day before since we had an incredible day in the park and the next day she just wanted to go so i helped her and i know shes better now, the pain never truly goes away i think but this pain is a reflection of the love i felt and continue to feel for her, i really love the Winnie the pooh quote “how lucky i am to have something that makes saying goodbye so hard” 💕
Antidepressants
She was cremated and I got a necklace urn that I put some of her ashes in that I wear every day. It’s been almost a year and if I’m being honest, I still cry about missing her fairly often, but having her with me all the time around my neck brings me a lot of comfort.