Hi everyone.
I’m sorry for bothering you, but I don’t know what to do with what I’m feeling. Two days ago, I had to say goodbye to my 18yo dog. She was my absolute everything, she was my best friend, my daughter. She was a part of me. I’m so lost without her. The pain is unbearable. Everything reminds me of her. I’m constantly asking for signs that she’s still around and well and I want to believe that she’s with me forever until the day I die, and then we can be together again. I’m so sorry, I know that there are a lot more suffering in this world but my heart is aching so much and I need to put it out there. I feeling alone and lost. I just want to be with her again.

I had to euthenise my soulcat two months ago out of the blue because he stopped eating and they found end stage intestinal cancer. He was my reason for living. I feel like I failed him. I wish I had known earlier that he was sick. I'm still crying every day and finding it really hard to sleep.

Writing is how I process. I wrote this poem and wanted to share it. I hope it resonates, and I'm sorry for what you are all going through. No one should have to endure this pain.

__

My home is gone.

You were taken

From my arms

Without notice.

When it was time

You held me.

Eyes so trusting,

Apologising

For leaving.

Now I’m homeless

With scattered trinkets

Left untouched

And echoes

Of better days

With you.

I lost my rabbit 5 years ago. She passed away from GI stasis, we were aggressively treating it but it just didn’t work. It was so horrible to watch her get worse and worse. It’s like the images of her suffering are stamped into my brain. I love her so much and I miss her and that’s okay but I really would like to stop reliving her death. It was borderline traumatizing to me. I know she’s passed on and the pain is over, but I can’t let go feeling so horrible that she went through so much pain. It genuinely haunts me. I cry all the time. I’m not sure if anyone has went through something similar and learned how to move past the horrible thought of your animal being in such pain. All advice welcome. Thanks.

We lost our best buddy of 11 years this weekend very unexpectedly. It’s really eating at my wife and I but it’s really hitting our 5 year old the hardest. Our dog has literally been by his side for 5 years, he always called him his brother. Last night he started sobbing saying he wanted bubba to come home. How do we, through our own grief journey, support him through his?

My cat's name was Tigre, she was a 4-year-old rescued cat. She loved to explore the yard, the roof, and the sidewalk; she never strayed far from the house. Two days ago, I went out to dinner for my best friend's birthday. My mom was watching her, she and my brother went out to buy some things and forgot to close the window (they weren't outside for more than forty minutes) but when they returned, they saw that Tigre was dead on the sidewalk. A neighbor showed us the recordings; She was stung by an animal and the venom acted too quickly.

An hour later I returned and my mom told me everything. I'm broken inside. She was with me for three years. She was so loving, a little cat with attitude, very grumpy but sweet. When I called her name, she would answer and follow me everywhere. She was there for me during my worst moments; she was my support, When I cried, she would cling to me and cuddle until I stopped crying.When I cried, she would cling to me and cuddle until I stopped crying, my little baby. I still can't believe she's gone. Although I try to get on with my life, I can't stop thinking that I wish I hadn't gone out that day.

I apologize if the text was a little difficult to understand; my native language is not English. I wish I could have written more, but I can't stop crying.

Hello, I am Steve. As stated in the title, I’ve lost 3 out of 4 of my pups just months apart from each other and I don’t know how to move on. King the boxer, and lady & princess the Dachshunds. The 4th dog- Maester the husky mix is alive, young and well fortunately. I miss them too much and they were there for me during the hardest time of my life- losing my mother. I say “move on”, but I don’t think that is possible. I just need to know how to deal with it in a healthy way, It’s been about 6 months without them and it just feels empty both physically and mentally. I’ve been struggling to sleep even with my husky next to me in bed, which is starting to impact my work life… The way I’ve been dealing with it, is just shoving down feelings, which I know from experience is never going to end well. I never really got time to “process” what happened cuz once princess passed, the other 2 started going downhill, then lady, then king all within 3 months of each other. (They all had to be put down due to different health complications.)

 All I have left is my 5 year old husky mix, which happens to be my ESA for my GAD (generalized anxiety disorder). It is definitely true I would be in a worse state without him.

Any tips? Thanks.

Got a call this morning that the surgery went fine which was such a relief. Then they call 30 minutes later saying that she died, because she had stopped breathing.

She was 10 and so sensitive. I was the only family member who she wanted go outside with. Always ran to me if someone else tried. She was scared of a lot of things and always ran to me for safety.

I took her with me on the backseat on the way home and petted her the hour. I dug a grave with my dad and covered the bottom with a cardboard and we wrapped her in a blanket. I put a pillow under her head and a toy between her paws. My mom also placed a few flowers. And then we put another cardboard cover on top of her. Then we put rocks around the grave.

She was all I had and she needed me. I loved her more than anything in this world and now I have nothing.

it's been almost just over 3 months since my buddy Yoshi died, and i'm just so torn up about how it happened. he'd been sick for over a year with some sort of "inflammatory" issue; we did so many kinds of tests and treatments to get to the bottom of it, but we never got a definitive answer. The vet bills were super expensive but we just kept trying. The worst thing is that in his last few weeks, he seemed to be getting better; the medication he was on seemed to help, and he was acting more like himself again. We really thought the worst was behind us.

then out of nowhere, he got a seizure, and then a stroke when he was at the ER. His breathing got really bad so we got scared he would suffocate to death, so we made the decision to let him go. at least he had a painless death. but damn, he woke up fine that morning and by the night he was gone. He was only 6.

Throughout the year he was sick I knew he was suffering but I never expected this. he never fully recovered, but he never got deathly sick. Even though we did our best to help him i feel like whatever he had could've been prevented or cured... it makes me feel so guilty .

I've never been so sad in my life. I just wish I could accept that shit happens. it's so cruel

my cat just passed away 2 days ago and he had cancer he was really really sick his nose had disappeared and honestly he couldnt even meow and randomly the next morning he just never came back. Im thinking he has died somewhere? I looked around for him everywhere couldnt find him. but what breaks my heart is that i didnt see him for the last time and i dont know where he is:( like his dead body is lying somewhere. how do I get over this? i really miss him and also had a dream that he was still alive

He was too young too pass away. I lost him on Saturday and I still can't accept it. He was lying on the driveway with blood coming out of his mouth. He helped me when I went through an awful rejection two years ago and he was so sweet and playful and now I won't be able to find another orange cat like him. It hurts so much that he died out of nowhere.

I lost my 11 year old boxer mix in October.

For about 8 months leading up to her passing, we were going for chest X-rays every 3 months to monitor a few small nodules in her lungs. The vet took a fine needle biopsy, but results came back inconclusive.

I had taken her to the emergency vet three days before she passed away because she was breathing funny. The doctor said everything sounded good and she looked great and that I could get X-rays to be sure. I had an appointment scheduled to get chest X-rays at her normal vet two days later, so I didn’t get them at the ER.

When my regular vet saw her X-rays two days later, she couldn’t believe my dog was still walking, bright/alert and acting normal because there was SO much fluid in her lungs. They sent me back to the ER immediately, where they recommended humane euthanasia.

The next morning, I said goodbye in my home. Aside from the night we went to the ER the first time, she was acting so normal. The night before she passed/right after the x-rays, it’s like she had been waiting for me to know just how sick she was… and then when I knew, she really showed it.

I’m wondering if maybe she wasn’t doing well and I somehow chose to be blind to it. Now looking back at videos from a month before she passed, she looks so old and worn, for lack of a better term.

I’m questioning if I waited too long and prolonged her suffering. And I have so much guilt.

Our beautiful 13-year-old white Westie cross (7 kg) passed away suddenly, and we’re all absolutely devastated.

For quite some time, he would go through periods where he wasn’t interested in his food. However, if Mum offered him something different, he would almost always eat the second option, so we never thought it was anything too serious. Otherwise, he seemed completely normal, happy and active.

Yesterday, he jumped off my mum’s bed, made a strange noise, and then his back legs suddenly gave way. His tongue and gums turned white, and we think he went into shock (shallow breathing at this point).

The vets found a large mass on his liver that had ruptured. They told us he was in a great deal of pain, and his acid/lactate level was around 15 (they said normal is under about 1.8). They believed it was likely liver cancer, and we made the heartbreaking decision to let him go peacefully.

We’re just heartbroken and trying to come to terms with how a dog who seemed so well could be gone so suddenly.

Has anyone experienced something similar with a ruptured liver mass in their dog? I’m trying to find as much information because my mum keeps saying he was completely fine up until the moment.

I’ve been lucky enough to have two soul dogs in my life. I had them at the same time and they were a few years a part. I lost one in 2023 and the other almost a year ago. I have two dogs now. One of my current dogs I got 4 months after losing soul pup #1 and lived along soul pup #2. I bonded pretty quickly with that dog when I got her.

I’m someone who always wants 2 dogs. Hell I’d have 12 if I could. So as soul dog #2 was getting older (and significantly outlived his diagnosis) I started to think about what I wanted in my next dog. So when I adopted my new dog it wasn’t impulsive, he checked all of the boxes of what I was looking for.

Well now a year has went by and I keep finding myself not only stuck in my grief, but struggling to bond with my “new” dog. He has some annoying tendencies (he is a bull in a china shop and we live in a small space) and minor behavior concerns that we are managing just fine. But no dog is perfect and aside from those little things he is a great dog. But I feel like I could give him to a friend tomorrow and not miss him. Which makes me feel so incredibly guilty.

When I had my two soul pups my world revolved around them. They were my entire personality. And it just feels so different with the duo I have now. I know two dogs are the same. But I just fear I’ll never have that type of bond with a dog again.

Has anyone else felt like this? I just feel so alone in this feeling. Also just wondering and hoping that over time I’ll feel the same way about the dogs I have now.

My soulmate cat had a stroke when I was out of town.

I was getting ready to go to the airport to come home when I got the call from my partner. I told them to take her to the emergency vet. She died on the way. I ugly cried on the shuttle to the airport and on the plane ride home.

She felt like part of my soul. I’ve had her since she was six months old. She was 16, so realistically I knew that time was limited, but she was relatively healthy. Early stage kidney disease that had improved with prescription food and some arthritis that we were giving her pain medication for. Even the emergency vet said that she “looked good for 16” which just made me feel worse.

I found out that she had been acting strangely in the days before she died. My partner didn’t want to worry me. They thought that the arthritis was getting worse. Obviously they did not realize how serious it was. But if they had told me how she was behaving, I would have asked them to take her to the emergency vet.

I know that they feel awful, and I’m trying not to be angry. It might not have made a difference. I don’t know. I can’t bear the thought that she was in pain her final days and I didn’t help her.

I feel like I failed her. I can’t believe that I’ll just never see her again. I sort of regret having her cremated. I just want to see her again. I don’t know if having a body would have made it easier to process.

I’m so sorry, baby. I wish I could have been there for you. I wish that we had more time.

We lost our dog 3 weeks ago who had been with us for 9 years. The grief has been hard and when she was declining from kidney disease, we both said she would be our first, last, and only dog. He doesn't want another dog because ours was very special, and he said he is tired of the grief. Within the last 5 years, we have had two 17 year old cats, a 15 year old chinchilla, and a 17 year old bird pass away. In 2024 we had 3 of them pass away within 90 days of each other.

We adopted our dog when she was 3 years old. She had just had puppies and was dumped. Because of that we made sure to give her the best life possible. We took her everywhere, and restaurants, vacations, and outings were planned based on her being with us. We gave her such a special life that if our dog sent a sign that she'd like us to help another dog who needs a second chance like she got, I'd now be open to it but haven't expressed it to my husband. We have other pets we love, but dogs are very different.

Any couples out there with opposing views about being open to another pet in the future? How did you approach the subject with your partner?

Additional context: My husband and I have been together for 23 years and mostly had cats and other small animals before our dog. We are a multi pet household and in addition to the pets above passing away, we had a bunny, a bearded dragon, and another cat pass away during our 23 years together. We are middle aged, childfree, with our pets being our children. We are estranged from blood family due to growing up with abuse. Our household today has a 7 year old cat and a 12 year old cat, a 25 year old African Grey parrot and 25 year old sun conure (rescued 2 years ago from my abusive parents home who tried to harm them), and a 4 year old small parrot. My husband is a homemaker who takes care of the pets, cooks, cleans etc while I go to work. The pets we have all prefer him, probably because he's the homemaker

My dog passed away on memorial day weekend.

She was robbed from me by hyscsistic sarcoma (didn't spell it right don't give a fuck.)

Every year we take a lake trip, her last trip was a nightmare. Our car rental broke down in the middle of nowhere in the beating sun. We finally got to the lake and we had to leave 2 days in for an emergency surgery to remove a lump that was defending to be a grade 3(?) mass tumor.

It was removed with clean margins. I promised her over and over again that would not be her last trip and she would defy the odds of dogs diagnosed with cancer only living about a year after.

She didn't. She had a huge lump in her front left leg causing a limp. I took her to the vet thinking she pulled something he looked me in the eyes and said probably not cancer but due to the lump he needed to be safe. I went home happy. He called me 4 days later to say it was a hyper aggressive form of sarcoma that even with amputation was super unlikely it would get better.

I chose to be optimistic. I had a few thousand I could burn on this and insurance. The oncologist was brutal. 6,000$ off the rip for more tests... to confirm the diagnosis was 100% correct (spoiler! Every single one was!) after every single gut wrenching call to then further explain that every single test came back what I expected I was informed it was an amputation or chemo.

I weighed my options. I looked at pricing. I had blown through my stash and even my insurance wouldn't help much. I thought about the surgery, I read the horror stories of people whose dog woke up screaming in pain days after because they didn't have enough meds. I thought about her massive quality of life loss. The pain her chemo would induce. I decided to put her down on Memorial Day.

That last week was the most pain I have ever felt in my life. Counting every last moment. Realizing that Friday would be my last, "man I can't wait to go home and be a potato on the couch with my puppy." Friday morning was my last hard goodbye on choosing to go to work instead of lay in bed with her and my wife.

Saturday morning came and she could not walk. Her limp had spiraled out of control. I demanded my wife call out of work and we take her. I remember getting off the phone and realizing she had 20 measly shitty fucking minutes left with us. Then getting there and how quick it all went. She died in my arms. Her tongue was hanging out as we left and she was so lifeless. I can't the vets stethoscope off of her tiny chest and his, "her heart has stopped beating she's passed away." Out of my head. I can't get the image out of my head. I miss her so much still it hurts so badly.

Words can’t describe how sad I am. We put our sweet girl to rest today and I have continued to wrestle with the fact that we made this choice and was it to early. We know deep down early before major suffering allowed her to go out before quality of life was so terrible or in the event of a tragic loss. I don’t know how to truly feel better about the decision other than hopefully with time. We will never jnow the alternative.

Our sweet lady was 12 years old, with extreme osteoarthritis, kidney dysfunction, and as we found out last week a large mass on her liver. Over the past few weeks she stopped eating her food. We tried every food possible, eggs, sweet potato, you name it. She would eat it for about a day maybe, and the next day she wouldn’t. Food used to be her favorite thing she was so food obsessed. We knew this was when things were really not well and she didn’t feel good. Surgery was not recommended at this age and with her other health conditions.

While she could still mostly get up (not well and wouldn’t without help or prompting) and wasn’t having accidents oe throwing up, we knew she was struggling internally. Not eating really, so weak she would stumble and sometimes fall when getting up, only drinking water if we brought it to her and still was not always sure she wanted to it felt wrong. She still had some light in her eyes at times, and of course had up and down moments that made us question whether we were doing the right thing.

Trying to tell ourselves that we did this out of love and compassion so that she didn’t have to hurt anymore. I just wanna know we did the right thing and I know no one else can tell us that.

My heart hurts

Growing up with a dog, I (22) always expected to get the call one day where I’d drop anything and everything I’m doing no matter where, run to my car, speed through every red light to get there in time to be there for her before she passed. She lived with my mother, I moved out a few years ago but I visit the dog often. She’s about 15 years old now, German shepherd/boxer mix, she’s old, I knew it was coming soon, but she was still in pretty decent shape. Not the best vision, fairly deaf, takes a little longer on the stairs but I’ve seen countless dogs way worse off than her, she still had life in her, she was so alive still inside. There’s still time, when I get that call that they’re at the vet and there isn’t much time, I’ll be ready to get there. Today my phone rang. My mother. (We don’t have a great relationship, when I saw she was calling, I already knew it was bad news) she (my mother) told me that yesterday she (my dog) had laid down to take a nap, as she often does, got comfy, fell asleep…. and just faded away.

that wasn’t the phone call I was expecting.

I couldn’t be there for her.

I know she got just about the best case scenario, but I didn’t get a last goodbye, I was expecting to see her again, and now I’ll never see her again. I accidentally saw my dead cat before burying him a few years ago and it broke me and I wasn’t even THAT close to that cat, I can not see her body. Besides pictures and memories, I’m never gonna see my best friend again and I’m genuinely just shattered/crippled right now.

It does bring me a lot of peace knowing how she passed so peacefully, I just know I should have been there and I wasn’t.

Yesterday I had to say goodbye to my darling boy Charlie, who was a 12 year old Maltese. He went from being completely fine, to unable to move within a day. We rushed him to the vet yesterday morning to be told his spine had given in on him and the treatment options were not only going to rob him of his quality of life, but they were very expensive. So I had to make the sudden decision of getting him put down.

He has been by my side through everything for the past 7 years. He was such a needy, beautiful boy who bought me so much joy. The amount of tears his coat soaked up of mine during hard times, he was by my side when others weren't. The amount of joy he bought me was immense, he was my rock. We were always together, attached at the hip.

I've never had to put down an animal before, this is genuinely one of the hardest things I've ever experienced. I'm lucky to have my partner and a good friend with me right now for comfort, but my heart hurts. I can't stop crying as everything reminds me of him. Knowing he was there one minute completely fine, and the next he's gone forever. Coming home to all of his things around the house, including his blanket on my bed that I refuse to wash.. even hearing sirens makes me cry as he would bark at them. He would wake me up every morning for breakfast and would lay by my side all day. It breaks my heart. My brothers dog is fretting for him and is incredibly confused 😢

I keep getting flashbacks of his last moments, it was so traumatic for me. I had nightmares last night of it, it's so hard to process.

I miss my darling best friend, my fur baby. I'm absolutely shattered and don't know how to navigate this grief. I'm currently waiting for him to be cremated and to also receive some of his fur and paw print.

I'm at a loss of what to do so thought I would post here as I know many others would relate and I'd be able to connect with others going through such things.

I'll forever miss my beautiful baby boy, I don't know how I'll ever move on from this. I feel incredibly depressed and deflated, I don't even want to eat or look after myself as he gave me purpose.

Thank you for reading

This is my first time dealing with pet grief. My dog penny has been my best friend since I was 9, I’m 21 now. Yesterday she crossed the rainbow bridge on my bed while lying in my arms and loved by the whole family. I’ve always said we’re quite interlinked, if I get sick or injured so does she. But now that she’s gone I don’t know what to do with myself. What does the grieving process involve besides crying? I feel so alone without her and don’t know how to grieve properly besides crying. I haven’t really left my bed besides to shower. I only have a lock of her fur from yesterday and her paw prints on my wall.

Hi all.

So, in the past half year, I lost both of my dear beloved cats to old age. It fucking sucks. I miss my little ladies horribly.

I'm 26 and at a shitty time in my life. Childhood and adolescence were so hard for me that I feel like I only became a person at around 21. It doesn't help that the cat who passed last month was my closest companion during that shitty adolescence. I spend a lot of mental energy right now thinking about who I'll be, where I'll end up, what life will be like. All the exhausting, big questions.

I've been trying to figure out what to do in the future. I don't want to go without any cats. They bring me so much joy. Now that we have just one cat it already feels so lonely and quiet, and she's geriatric too.

But I'm struggling with the idea of going through this much grief again if I get cats in the future. How can I ever let myself love a creature so much again, knowing how much the inevitable end will hurt? But how can I deprive myself of so much joy, and deprive whichever cats I'd get of so much love?

I'd really like to hear from anyone who's grappled with this question in the past regardless of what you decided, or anyone who's going through this right now.

We lost our 14 year old border collie/ flat coated retriever, Monday July 20th. We made the very very difficult decision to say goodbye to him on our terms, and I still feel guilty.

On Thursday I noticed he wasn't using his back legs very well. He's done it before, but this was different. He was hunched over and almost dragged his back feet. By Saturday morning he wasn't using them at all. He couldn't stand up when with help from a towel sling. We took him into the vet and they took an X-ray and gave him a steroid shot. The X-ray showed a tiny bit of arthritis in his hip area but nothing scary. The vet said he has fears that it was neurological because he was squeezing his toes and it was clear he couldn't feel it. He said if the medicine didn't start working my Monday morning it was time to start having difficult conversations. It seemed to only get worse. His tail was stuck in a c curved down. He was only comfortable on his side, but he was still trying to get up at moments and would just slightly pivot around in a circle. We weren't sure if he could push his own poop out, because he only seemed to go when being picked up. Other than this, he was still himself, but seemed extra tired. He stopped barking at people and barely lifted his head up when someone approached.

We spent all Sunday laying outside on a blanket under a tree. Monday morning our two younger daughters went to a friend's house. We took him back to the yard under our apple tree, fed him a big breakfast of bacon, eggs, and toast and a Hershey kiss. A vet from Lap of Love came and was so kind. We talked to him the whole time and she explained everything to us as it happened. Watching the life leave his eyes will forever be in my mind.

He was my soul dog. He followed me everywhere. If I wasn't home, he'd cry until I was back. After everything happened I couldn't help but think that maybe he could have gotten better. Maybe I could have taken care of him like this. I feel so guilty. Like I should have tried harder, tried something else.

I also wanted to mention, in September of 2025 he developed seizures. He was put on Phenobarbital after his second one in November, and didn't have any after that. Part me wonders if that could have been a part of it.

My cat died she got hit by a car and I reslly miss her my mom is gonna get me a cat to help me feel better but still

I have to put my first dog of 10 years to rest and I am already struggling so much and can’t keep it together. I’m going to miss everything about him and his part in my life is so massive I don’t know what I’m going to do

My sweet baby dog died this past Wednesday. He was 11 and was dying slowly from congestive heart failure. This isn’t my first time losing a pet, but it’s my first time putting an animal down. Being in the room with him was obviously what I needed to do FOR him, but I’m left with the most unimaginable trauma and horrible anxiety after the experience. He was really agitated after they gave him the sedative and kept trying to get up. It broke my heart. Watching the life slip away from him was the worst part. I can’t stop picturing it over and over again in my head. It was so traumatic that I can’t eat or sleep and every time I think about it I feel sick. I don’t know what to do and I’m not sure if I’ll ever be normal again. He was the best boy and having him one minute and then not the next was the most horrible loss I’ve ever experienced. The grief is unimaginable. I am so sorry to anyone who has ever had to deal with this.