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Grieving and Mourning -The process is the same for pets and people

By 2 Comments3 min read

Part 1

Right now, I am still grieving and mourning the loss of my dog Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea passed away on July 21 just two months shy of her 17th birthday.  Sweet Pea was a very important part of my family.  She was my side kick.  When she was younger, she was my computer dog, always sitting on my lap while I worked on the computer.  I would fall asleep every night listening to her breathing and yes sometimes snoring.  Sweet Pea was my first pet and I fell in love with her! The love she gave me changed me forever.

Food and cooking at this point in time does not appeal to me.   You can say I have temporarily lost my appetite.  Blogging about food and cooking will happen again shortly.  So for a brief time,  blogging about Sweet Pea will be helping me  so please bear with me for a bit.

For now I want to talk about the similarities of aging and grieving because whether it is for a human or a pet, the similarities are amazing! I had Sweet Pea since she was a puppy and she was a very special dog. She had such great qualities for a Jack Russell we decided to have some puppies.  It did not turn out to be a litter of puppies.   Sweet Pea gave birth to one puppy we called Kudzu. Kudzu was both the pick and runt of the litter and almost twice the size of Sweet Pea. Sweet Pea was 11 pounds, small and sweet. Kudzu is solidly built and weighs 18 pounds.  Kudzu’s name fit her well.

I believe Sweet Pea knew she was always Kudzu’s mother and Kudzu knew Sweet Pea was her mother.  Kudzu never left the litter and no matter how old she is getting still thinks of herself and acts like the puppy in the family.  Kudzu each and every day until the near end of her mother’s life would give her face to Sweet Pea to clean.  It was a morning ritual. Mother and daughter were that close.

Both of my girls suffer from heart conditions and almost 2 years ago, Sweet Pea had a pace maker put in at Angell Animal Medical Center Boston and it gave me two more years with her.  Her health was very good and regardless of her age she was a good candidate for this procedure.  I just felt that it was not Sweet Pea’s time quite yet and I am still in the doggy poor house because of the procedure but it was worth it.

I wish I could tell you more about Sweet Pea, but my memories are more of the last week of her life, her passing and how she looked when she was buried.  I spoke with a friend who lost her husband not that long ago and her memories of her husband are from the end of his life as well. I spoke to friends whose dogs passed and they too in the beginning could only remember the end of their dogs lives. I can only hope all the memories of the good times will come back to all of us soon.  I guess this is a normal process of grieving and mourning.   I am where I am suppose to be in this grieving process and realize it is the same grieving process for both the loss of an animal or a loved one.  Grieving is a long process.  I do what I can and hope each day I hope I will be able to do more than I did the day before.

Part 2 will continue tomorrow.

2 Comments

  • Jamie says:

    Hi Carol, sorry to hear about Sweet Pea 🙁 She sounds like she was a great companion. Please do share more memories of her on the blog.
    -Jamie

    • carol says:

      Thanks so much Jamie. Sweet Pea was a great friend and her story will continue on the blog. Once I feel a bit better and get my appetite back, I will start blogging about food and goodies! Thanks for your kind words. Carol

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