Category: loss

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A Woman Saw Her Dog’s Face in the Sky and Others Shared Signs They’ve Received From Pets Who Passed Away

I know I’m going to cry by the time I get to the end of these photos…

Losing a pet is so tough and after they’re gone, you see little things that remind you of them everywhere you look.

And then there are people who see signs that they truly believe are messages from their late pets, letting them know that they are okay now that they’ve crossed over that Rainbow Bridge.

A Twitter user shared a sad and powerful story about a sign that she saw from her dog who had passed away.

Here are some other moving posts that people shared about signs they received from their beloved pets.

1. A good boy.

Sending you love.

2. He loved you.

And that was his way of telling you.

3. I see you up there.

Watching over you.

4. Teddy bear.

This is great.

5. That’s George.

He looks like a very wise dog.

6. I don’t think he’s blind.

She could see you.

7. A shooting star.

A definite sign.

8. RIP to your baby.

Sending you a message.

9. Missing Fluffy.

A great pooch.

10. Up in the clouds.

I see you up there!

11. Crazy beard and all.

That was him.

12. In a better place.

But just saying hello.

Do you think that you’ve ever seen a sign from a pet who has passed away?

If so, please tell us the story in the comments.

We’d love to hear from you!

The post A Woman Saw Her Dog’s Face in the Sky and Others Shared Signs They’ve Received From Pets Who Passed Away appeared first on UberFacts.

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Researchers Find That Losing a Pet is Almost as Bad as Losing a Person

Losing a pet is a shock to the heart. No matter if our beloved furry friend passes because of illness or due to an accident, we feel as if we have lost a member of the family–because that’s exactly what they areL family. We develop emotional attachment to their sweet fuzzy faces.

Photo Credit: Pexels

Researchers (Quakenbush & Glickman, 1984) at the University of Pennsylvania found people risked particularly extreme grief when they had to euthanize their animals. Pet owners felt a tremendous sense of guilt, as well, around deciding to euthanize. They agonize over whether or not all care options were considered. Was there truly nothing else left to do?

According to the study:

Feeling guilty often is a component of the grief, especially if the owner is conflicted about a decision for euthanasia, or feels that appropriate care was not provided. Grief for an animal, though becoming more socially accepted, remains somewhat disenfranchised. For example, time off work is typically not an option.

Photo Credit: Flickr

The worst possible thing to hear at such as sad time is it’s just a dog or a cat or a hamster or whatever. 

Comments like these only pile on our feelings of loss.

Our pets are still loved just as much as human family members, even if others don’t understand.

Photo Credit: Wikipedia

Grief after losing a pet is real and natural. But it hurts and many people, including myself, have found doing some of these things can help with the process of moving past the pain.

  • Note how you feel having toys, leashes, collars and other reminders of your pet around you. If these items bring you comfort, leave them out. If they distress you, there is nothing wrong with putting them away.
  • Embrace the idea of the “Rainbow Bridge” – an image meant to suggest that we could all meet again in the afterlife – and take comfort in knowing your sweet pet is there.
  • If you had to euthanize, you did it to ease your pet’s suffering. There is nothing wrong with that. You did the right thing at the right time.

Photo Credit: Flickr

  • Remember all the love and attention you gave to your pet and how much you got in return in your beautiful relationship.
  • Memorialize your pet. Having a ceremony or creating a physical memorial with photos and mementos can help you grieve.
  • Journaling, writing letters, reading books, visiting friends and playing with their pets or keeping busy with volunteering and other activities can also help you fill the void you feel.

No one can tell you the proper way to grieve or how long the grief will last. But it will pass soon and you’ll be left with warm memories of your furry best friend to carry in your heart.

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People Open Up About the Greatest Loss They Ever Suffered in Life

Any kind of loss is a painful process. It toughens us up and unfortunately, we all have to go through it at one point or another.

These AskReddit users opened up about the greatest loss they had to overcome in their lives.

1. Marriage

“My marriage, I guess. Not so much the falling apart of the marriage – it was inevitable, but the fallout of it. Loss of friends, loss of stability and comfort. I was not prepared for the fallout from ending a very serious, long-term relationship and I definitely was not prepared for how long the feeling of loss/failure would last.”

2. BFF

“My best friend died when he was 18, that was 20 years ago. I still think about him. He was a huge part of my life. My wife and I even named our youngest son after him.”

3. Insanity bingo

“My mental health. I took too many drugs and went off the deep end.

Psychosis, hallucinations, anxiety.

I’m playing insanity bingo.”

4. Diabetes

“My pancreas.

At age 15 my first week if high school it failed and I was taken to the emergency room and diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes.”

5. Sight

“Optic nerve damage after a seizure, so my full field of vision on my right side.”

6. Mom

“My mom. She’s been gone 10 years yesterday.

When I asked my mom one day why she never had another kid she told me, “I didn’t think it’d be fair because I knew I could ever love another child as much as I love you.”

As I sit here sobbing my eyes out because I know I will never feel that kind of love again, I started to laugh because I remember her saying right before she died, “Play REALLY sad songs at my funeral because I want every person in there crying their eyes out over me. Not a dry eye in the house, Jenn.”

Every year on this day I seem to get a wonderful gift from her and I got my gift already today and I couldn’t be happier.

There will never be a cooler, funnier, loving mother than mine and I’m so lucky I had her for 36 years.”

7. Kitty

“My cat. But I think the worst part is that I’m over the loss and have been for quite some time since getting a new cat. Still I do remember the pain of losing it.

So while I’m now more prepared in life for eventually losing someone close to me but I also know that this time I won’t be able to replace them.”

8. Writing

“I’ve been a writer for about five years now, and I’ve been doing pretty well at it. I’ve never really had a major flop on a long release, but earlier this month I launched a novel under a new pen name, and it bombed.

On the one hand, I know rationally that these things happen and it was probably a problem with the blurb and the cover; the reviews were solid, and people who read it seemed to enjoy it. On the other, I watched 90,000 words and months of work effectively go down the toilet, and that wasn’t fun. I know it’s not on the same level as a lot of people’s losses, but it was that moment of fear that my childhood dream of being a novelist was just dying in front of me, and that all my future books would go the same way (even though my past books have done OK). It was like a mother bird throwing her baby out of the nest and watching it crash onto the pavement below.

There’s ‘loss’ as in ‘absence’, but this was definitely ‘loss’ as in ‘as far from a win as you can get’.”

9. Missing his brother

“My best friend drowned himself 9 years ago. I don’t think I’ll ever stop missing him…”

10. Confidence

“My lack of confidence. Couldn’t ask a girl out even at gunpoint.”

11. My brother

“Lost my brother when we were teenagers. We shared rooms til I was 17 and he was 16. We moved frequently when we were young so we had each other when we didn’t have any friends at all. It’s been 8 years, but I still mourn him. I often think of all the milestones we never got to share together.”

12. A lonely feeling

“My folks. Yes, for the entire history of history, people have buried their parents. It’s still a deeply lonely and soul changing experience. Now my sister is ill, and I’ve realized she’s the last person who remembers me as a child.

That’s a very lonely feeling.”

13. Losses

“The biggest losses I’ve gone through are: my grandpa who was my male role model and who died when I was 10, my dog who kept me alive through my nightmarishly difficult teens, who had to be put down when I was about 26, and my closest friend who I’d been living with for several years, after I had a period of being suicidal to the point of acting on it in my mid 20s.”

14. Mom

“My mom when I was 18, she was all I had and I’m pretty much an orphan now.”

15. Deformed

“My beauty.

I thought i had a big nose and had plastic surgery, but the operation was incredibly botched and I am visibly deformed now.

I miss my symmetry. I cut off my nose to spite my face.”

h/t: Reddit

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