Pets can help us to build patience and to calm frayed nerves. Several colleagues, who live alone, have shared that their pet helped them survive the pandemic and remain psychologically well.
One dear teammate told me she was having a hard week and when I inquired, she said, “You’re going to laugh at me,” and shared that her dog, who’d been part of her family for twenty years, had just died. She told me she was shocked she was taking it so hard.
Pets can help us to build patience and to calm frayed nerves. Several colleagues, who live alone, have shared that their pet helped them survive the pandemic and remain psychologically well.
One dear teammate told me she was having a hard week and when I inquired, she said, “You’re going to laugh at me,” and shared that her dog, who’d been part of her family for twenty years, had just died. She told me she was shocked she was taking it so hard.
I told her about my own grief when Sunni died, but also agreed that non-pet people don’t always understand how painful the loss of a pet can be.
Many people who own a pet consider them to be a member of their family, a beloved companion, even a friend. But for some of my patients, who have no one else, their pet is their greatest, closest, sometimes only friend. It was through them that I learned how terribly, enduringly painful the loss of a deeply loved pet can be.